


The Tony Stark Squad

by BellaP3891



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF FRIDAY, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Sharon Carter, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Not A Fix-It, Not Steve Friendly, Not Team Captain America Friendly, Other, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Swearing, Team Iron Man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:31:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7763281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellaP3891/pseuds/BellaP3891
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because Tony does have loyal friends, and they are not happy with the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sharon Carter

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Civil War and Steve really pissed me off, so this is my point of view of the matter.
> 
> Obviously that nothing belongs to me, I’m just having fun, especially at Steve’s expense.
> 
> Many thanks to Ana (Anafandom) who beta-ed this story.

 

Sharon Carter and a not-so-dead Phil Coulson were the ones waiting for the former fugitives and now pardoned Avengers on the hangar bay. The Quinjet coming from Wakanda had barely finished its landing procedure when its doors opened and out of it came Steve and company.

The Captain was smiling, a very small but genuine smile, and behind him the other Avengers were looking around like fascinated children, like the last year and a half hadn't happened. Like they were coming back from a long vacation instead of exile.

Phil’s face muscles didn’t move an inch, as usual, and to everybody’s surprise, Sharon was carrying the vibranium shield in one arm. She didn’t smile back when Steve smiled at her. Actually, what she did was march in Rogers direction with a very determined expression.

“Here comes the kiss.” Sam whispered to Clint, behind the Captain.

Well, Sharon’s expression really seemed that of somebody who would kiss Rogers, or hit him. Sam was there when their first kiss happened, back in Germany, so he expected an encore of that scene.

What happened next was so fast that it took the Avengers a second to react.

Sharon raised the shield when she approached the Captain. The first hit caught Rogers by surprise, the second brought him down. When the Avengers moved to stop the crazy blond woman, she wasn’t hitting Steve anymore.

"What the hell?!" Clint said, shocked. An emotion that was also being shown on Steve's bloody face.

"Are you in pain, Rogers?" Sharon snarled to the fallen soldier. "Well, this is what happens when you slam a vibranium shield on somebody's face. Bones break, pain takes over, betrayal eats you out." She dropped the shield at Rogers' feet with a clang. "Touch him ever again and let's see how fast the serum will heal a bullet wound to the head." With that, she turned and marched out of the hangar bay like a queen.

“Wha...?” Steve was able to say after a minute on the ground, bleeding and blinking like an idiot. Sam and Clint helped him on his feet and Phil finally showed some kind of emotion: a small smug smile.

“A word of warning Mr. Rogers.” The absent of the title, coming from the new Director of SHIELD, hurt. Coulson was his biggest fan, even if the fact embarrassed Steve; now he could only see the disappointment in the other man's eyes. "Tony Stark has some pretty loyal friends, and they are not happy with you."

Not happy indeed.

 


	2. Pepper Potts

People wrongfully think that Virginia "Pepper" Potts is the personification of calm. That if Buddha decided to reincarnate, he would choose Ms. Potts as his new body on Earth. That's because only a few people knew that Pepper was promoted from Account Assistant to Tony Stark's PA because she threatened to pepper spray a security guard who wasn't letting her see Mr. Stark about some math mistake. That was also how she got the nickname. Not because of her freckles, or her vibrant red hair, but because, according to Tony, she was as vicious as a pepper spray, but seemed innocuous because it was hidden in a very small and delicate package.

Pepper was calm because she was a business woman, a CEO. Because she knew that being a woman in a men's world meant that if she lost her composure she would be called hysterical and nobody would take her seriously. But just because she posed as someone unshakable, it didn't mean she wasn't able to kick some asses.

Pepper entered the compound like a woman on a mission. The Avengers were back in the USA and being praised by the media and the public like martyrs. The poor heroes who were kicked out of their country by the big and bad Tony Stark. Pepper, despite her calm exterior, was actually furious, she was boiling with barely suppressed rage, and if Extremis was still fully activated in her, she would have burnt a thing or two... or twenty.

When Pepper reached the compound's living room, she heard some laughing and saw Steve and his gang acting like they hadn't destroyed millions in private property, like they didn't leave a man behind to die in Siberia. Rogers was laughing like he hadn't lied for years and had the nerve to say that he wouldn't tolerate his teammates lying to him.

The laughter died when they heard the click, click of Pepper's heels, saw her stormy face and startled when she slammed a manila envelope on the coffee table.

“Ms. Potts...” Steve opened his mouth to say something that Pepper really didn't want to hear.

“Here is what is gonna happen. You bunch have 24 hours to leave this compound.” Indignant squeals sounded here and there, but Pepper's eyes never strayed from Rogers' face.

“This is our home.” Wanda protested and would keep complaining if Pepper's glare hadn't shut her up instantly and made her hide behind Clint. 

“This is Stark Industries' property. Meaning that, as CEO and holder of 12% of SI's shares, I can decide to do whatever the hell I want.” Pepper knew she could have demolished that compound months ago, but she wanted the revenge. She wanted to see their shocked faces. She wanted to squash every one of them under her Jimmy Choo. “You have 24 hours to leave. If after this time you're still here, pardoned or not, I'll kick your asses back to whatever hole you were hiding in.”

Clint was fuming but wasn't saying anything, probably because of the dress-down he got from his wife. The one that made him come down from his righteousness place a little bit. Because Laura could be as vicious as Pepper and she didn't like to waste time with meaningless conversation. As soon as the call connected, she started to scream in Barton's ears about what a complete idiot he was and until he lost that stupid attitude, he wasn't welcomed at the farm. 

Wanda was still cowering behind the archer because she had never met someone who could show such a powerful aura without being a superhuman.

And Sam?

Sam was shocked. He had heard of Pepper Potts before, had seen her on press conferences and other similar events, and, for him, she always seemed so calm, so inoffensive, not this woman who was glaring at them and hunting for blood.

“And that?” Steve tried and failed to have some voice in this. First was Sharon, now Pepper, someone he had always viewed to be above petty things like revenge.

Pepper smiled like a shark that is about to rip off someone's limb.

"That, Mr. Rogers, is a lawsuit." A lawyer could have done the job of delivering that to Rogers, but she really wanted to see the shock on the Captain's pretty face when he heard the news. "An intimation for you to answer in court for assault and property damage. Because Iron Man's armor may be used by Tony, but it belongs to Stark Industries."

“Assault?!” Steve squeaked. What assault?

Pepper's shark smile became bigger.

“Tony Stark.”

“I didn't...”

"When you beat someone to a bloody pulp and leave them to die in an isolated location, it is called assault. Actually, it is called attempted murder, what I'd like the charges to be. But you still have a name on you and the public wouldn't like to see it thrown in the mud, so I'm stuck with assault... for now."

“What?!” Steve jumped out of the couch and Sam and Clint promptly flanked the Captain in a show of support. Pepper didn't move an inch. She would not be intimidated by the three men.

“You are really naive to think that a HYDRA base, even an unused one, wouldn't have a still functioning security feed. I have video evidence of your lying and your attack, Mr. Rogers. Captain America, the fighter for the truth, justice and the American way lying about a murder to his own teammate. How will the people react to that?” She smiled victoriously when she saw Steve pale. “And Tony may not want anything to do with your bunch anymore, he may want to forgive and forget, but I'm not that good. I'll ruin your life. I'll ruin your reputation. I'll ruin you!”

Pepper turned on her heels, giving her back to everyone in that room, not even concerned about what they could do. She knew they wouldn't try anything because they were too shocked with everything that happened to react. And when they come back to their senses they will laugh and not take her seriously. Because this is what everyone does when they meet Pepper Potts, they don't take her seriously, and this is always their first mistake. Because they don't know that she got her job by threatening a guy bigger and stronger than her, by pointing out to her boss that he was an idiot. She didn't keep Stark Industries afloat, when the crisis after the Civil War hit, because of her pretty face. She did it with a sharp mind and not taking shit from anyone.

And she doesn't make empty threats.

She will ruin Rogers, so he will learn to never mess with what is hers again.

 

 


	3. Christine Everhart

Christine Anne-Marie Everhart never thought she would be friends with Anthony Edward Stark. Why would she, when their first encounter didn't have a happy ending? Christine was kicked out of the house by an ever efficient Pepper Potts like she was nothing but trash. And that hurt, a lot. So Christine, being the vengeful little bitch that she was, decided to ruin Tony Stark.

Christine was the youngest of three children, and the only woman, raised by a single dad after her mother left to pursue the dream of money and fame in Hollywood. The woman must have succeeded because she never came back. So while Christine was growing up she was taught to be strong, to be fierce, to take no shit from anyone, especially from a genius, playboy and billionaire. So she dug out everything she could about Tony Stark after that night and found about the weapons being sold to terrorists. When she confronted him, she expected denial, she expected him to put the mask of a liar; what she didn't expect was the shocked expression, the betrayal shining in his eyes, the pure rage that came after.

After that night the press was on fire because of a mysterious attack on a terrorist cell in Gulmira, and the subsequent airplane accident that Colonel Rhodes said was a training exercise that went wrong. She didn't buy that bullshit and that was why she insisted, at the press conference after the incident on the Stark Industries' factory, about the mysterious bodyguard in a fancy suit of armor. Until Stark dropped the bomb:

“The truth is... I'm Iron Man.”

What?

Now Christine was a woman on a mission. She needed to understand Tony Stark better than ever. Because a man who treats a woman like she means nothing wouldn't shut down weapons' manufacturing, wouldn't try to redeem his mistakes, wouldn't put his life at risk to save innocents.

"I'm starting to think that you want to ruin me." Stark said behind her when they met at the annual Maria Stark Foundation's gala. Christine was now elected the official reporter to deal with all Tony Stark's affairs after the two wonderful pieces that she wrote about the genius on Vanity Fair. And now she became Stark's shadow because she needed to know more, she needed to know everything.

Christine smiled a very fake smile at the man. The truth hurt and Stark should be used to the media crucifying him.

“I'm trying to do some good here.” She turned to confront the man, expecting a pout, like the little spoiled child he was. Her last piece was about Iron Man, whether (or not) the so-called hero was worthy of the title, made Vanity Fair's sales reach very high levels. Christine had been waiting all night for Tony to approach her, demanding answers, but she wasn't expecting that face.

Tony's face wasn't the mask he so carefully built for the press after years and years of being put in front of the cameras. It was something she never thought she would see in him. He was mad, he was really mad, but not about her words. He was mad about what kind of impact her words would cause on the work he was trying to do. He was offended by her supposition of him only trying to get more attention, trying to ease his guilty mind, and then, after some time he would get tired and go back to be the frivolous playboy that everybody loved to hate.

“I'm s...” No, Christine had never said sorry in all her life and she wouldn't start now just because Tony Stark was showing a side she never thought she would see. Tony didn't mind the failed attempt of an apology, but he had a very disappointed face that made something funny and unpleasant turn inside Christine's chest. She later identified it as shame.

“I thought that you were more than a pretty face trying to get into my pants and into my secrets. But I guess I was wrong, huh?” That hurt, more than that morning after when she was kicked out of the Malibu mansion. Tony didn't wait for her reply, for her defense, why would he when in the last year she hadn't given him the chance to defend himself, and left.

Christine didn't apologize after that night, it wasn't in her nature, but she tried to be less biased in her work.

“What are you doing?!” She demanded after he came back from Monaco and she was able to corral him before the press conference. Tony looked like hell, pale as a ghost and with dark circles under his eyes. He looked thinner too and his hair was unusually unkempt.

“What?” He took a second to recognize her presence. His movements seemed very lethargic and he was blinking repeatedly.

“You ripped me a new one about how I was destroying your good work as Iron Man and I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. But then, at the first opportunity, you prove me wrong!”

“You're not wrong.” Her words seemed to have woken him up.

“Then what are you doing? What the hell is happening? What was that shit you pulled in Monaco?” She demanded and Tony blinked and blinked, like he was trying to process her questions and failing.

“I don't have to explain anything to you. We're not friends.” He turned and left her blinking and blinking as she was the one now trying to process what happened. When did she start to see Tony Stark as something more than a subject for her work? When did she start to care for him?

Their meetings, after that day, turned out to be more and more frequent, with Stark becoming a constant in her life, becoming closer than she ever thought they would. Stark's masks weren't easy to crack, like her masks weren't easy either, but they had so many similarities that Christine had to ask herself if they wouldn't have clicked earlier if it wasn't for that disastrous morning after.

“I'm impressed.” He said after another press conference. Usually Christine was the one trying to have a private interview with the man, not the other way around, but lately she noticed that every time she raised her hand, she was the first one picked up to be answered. Her colleagues were starting to get jealous and mutter some pretty offensive things behind her back. After all, the night she spent with Stark wasn't a secret to anyone.

“About?”

“I didn't see anything on Vanity Fair about how my relationship with Pepper is doomed to fail.”

“Why? Do you want to?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what's the problem?”

“It's just...” Christine rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I know we didn't have a good start here, but after all this time I thought we'd reached some kind of agreement where I don't try to eviscerate you and you don't try to test my patience.” Stark laughed. “And I may still think that you're a jerk, but I also know that a woman like Pepper Potts wouldn't date a jerk. She knows you better than anyone so she would know if you are dating material or not. Am I right?” Pepper Potts was a force of nature and Christine respected her from the first time she tried to rile the woman up and got back a smile and a very sarcastic response.

“I knew there was a reason why I liked you.”

Yeah, so no, Christine Anne-Marie Everhart never thought she would be friends with Tony Stark, but here she was, nine years later, in a press conference thrown by the returned Avengers, trying to understand what the hell happened in what the media was calling 'The Civil War'. Stark hadn't said much about the matter after his failed attempt to apprehend Captain Rogers in Siberia. There wasn't a press conference, the man wasn't seen in public for months and when he finally ventured outside it was to say that the Avengers were over and then if the questions weren't about the new Stark Industries' tech, he didn't want to hear about it.

Christine knew that 'I'm tired' posture better than anyone, she saw it every time she caught her father struggling to raise three kids alone, and she never thought she would see Tony Stark get there. Stark was a resilient son of a bitch so, for him to be tired, something pretty serious happened and she needed to know what. She needed to know whose balls she was going to rip off for breaking the unbreakable man.

The mediator called for silence, explained the reason why they were there; because the Avengers were back, but not loved by many, and this conference was to help to put people's mind at ease. Christine snorted. If they wanted that, they shouldn't have let her come, because she didn't want to put anyone at ease, she wanted answers. But anyway, she prepared her notes, she put her best dress suit, she sat on the front row and glared when Steve Rogers and company entered the stage and sat in their place.

First was the Avengers time to talk. They explained their side of the story, in a very calm, very 'I memorized every line from a bunch of cards so what I'm telling is not what I think, but what they told me to say' way, they explained why they were pardoned (because they were a necessary evil, was what Christine understood) and why they still didn't sign the Accords, and then the mediator passed the words to the press and questions started to rain on the Avengers.

Christine waited, like the calm and collected woman she was when she was doing her job. She waited and observed every one of them, every reaction to every question, every answer and what she could read between the lines and when the time came, she raised her hand.

"Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair. So you are saying, Captain Rogers, that you ignored the wish of 117 countries because you think that they are misguided and probably corrupted?" Rogers opened his mouth to answer, but Christine didn't give him time and kept on. "We're not talking about governments here, Captain. We're talking about people. Not 117 people, but millions. People who elected these politicians to be their voice in the world. So, actually, when you rejected the Accords saying that you can't put up with this kind of power, the power that the Avengers represents, in the hands of the governments, you actually said that you don't trust the people to decide what is best for them. Is that right?"

“Well, that's not what...” Rogers started to defend himself, but Christine wasn't done.

"You said that your lack of trust in Mr. Stark was because of the Ultron Incident, because you two had some disagreements about what happened, but you seem to trust Ms. Maximoff, what is very curious." Christine paused for some effect and gave Captain Rogers a smile that was very far away from being friendly. Discovering the truth behind Ultron wasn't hard. You just had to find the right people, like some very angry Sokovians who knew the Maximoff twins, their history, and what they'd done. "It's in my understanding that Ms. Maximoff worked as a HYDRA agent and even then you, who fought against HYDRA in the war, accepted her with opened arms. She is also reported to have aided Ultron in his plan to destroy the world..." Christine had wanted to use that trump card for a while, but at the time she discovered that, the Avengers were still America's sweethearts, so she would be the one crucified by the people, not the other way around. Now... Well, now was another story.

"And she regrets it." Rogers interrupted her, not even questioning how she knew that, and Christine heard some of her colleagues around her suck in some air. Everyone knows that you don't interrupt Everhart because she only becomes more vicious when she has her thoughts cut in the middle.

“And because she regrets it you decided to give her a second chance, even with her criminal record.”

“Yes. Everyone deserves a second chance, even criminals.”

“True, but usually criminals get their chances after they paid for their crimes, not before. So why is she so special?”

“She's only a child.”

“She is 26, Captain Rogers. I would hardly call someone with this age a child. And if I'm correct, she's only one or two years younger than you. Do you see yourself as a child too?”

“She suffered, she had her reasons, she was misguided...” Really? Please, someone put a lid on Rogers, he was digging his grave in a spectacular way.

“Yes, I know all the sobbing story about her parents' death by Stark's hands. To my colleagues that don't know, Ms. Maximoff's parents died when she was a child. A Stark missile was launched during Sokovia's civil war by a faction that was trying to bring down the government at that time. The missile hit Ms. Maximoff's house, killing her parents instantly, and trapping her and her twin under the wreckage for two days. This is not a well keep secret in Sokovia. Everyone knows the Maximoff twins and let me tell you, they are not well loved by their people right now.” Maximoff jumped on her seat after she heard Christine's venomous words. “But the funny thing is that she stared for two days at a missile that didn't go off.”

"And?" Rogers exchanged some looks with his friends like he was searching in their face the meaning in what Christine said.

"You worked for years being sponsored by Stark Industries. Your gear, your weapons, everything was handmade by Stark himself. Did any of it fail during a battle?" Rogers' silence was answer enough. "I just think that it's curious how a launched missile didn't explode. Stark Industries had a military contract for years with the government, giving only the best for our soldiers. When Stark shut down weapons' manufacture, he also went after the ones that were sold legally and illegally by Stane and he got back every last one of them. But before that happened, the black market already had heard some words about how Stark's weapons were being sold to the higher bidder and those who couldn't get an original to sell, they surely could make a fake one and charge millions for it."

“Meaning?” Rogers' voice was so small that he sounded pathetic. Maximoff was pale as a ghost when the implications of Christine's words finally hit her.

"Meaning that that missile was probably a fake. And even if it wasn't, Ms. Maximoff's logic is faulty. If my father gets killed in a traffic accident I won't volunteer myself to a criminal organization, let them do illegal human experiments on me using alien technology and then go after the CEO of the company that manufactured the car that my father was driving so I can avenge his death. This is not how the world works.”

They didn't say anything, they didn't try to defend themselves. Maximoff was close to tears, Barton was fuming, while Rogers was pale and his hands seemed to be trembling a little, from shame or rage, Christine didn't know and didn't care. Her job here was done. Rogers' history said that he always had the easy way out. He broke the law five times to get into the Army and got lucky because he was the perfect candidate for an experiment, he disobeyed his commanding officer during the war and got promoted instead of punished, and now he said no to over a hundred countries that are claiming for justice and control of these scary force the Avengers represent, and instead he gets pardoned after hurting people and destroying private and public property to fight for his own selfish reasons while claiming that he was fighting for what was right.

Well, Rogers may try, he may even succeed in getting on the public good side again, but it didn't mean that Christine wasn't going to turn his path to success into a living hell.

 

 


	4. Madeline Rhodes

Madeline Rhodes is a woman whose character was built by a life of hard work and people trying to bring her down. As a little girl, she didn't dream about a fairy tale romance or Prince Charming, not when she was growing up in a poor and dangerous neighborhood in Philadelphia. A place where young women usually didn't have a pretty destiny and young men didn't live past their 21st birthday or went to jail before that. So, meeting Rupert Rhodes was Madeline salvation from that dump. He wasn't a Prince Charming, just a guy who came from the same place as her and got lucky for not getting involved with the bad crowd. It wasn't love at the first sight, but it was love. Their marriage and their combined income produced a better life and four wonderful kids who Madeline dotted on and educated to be the best and to never let anyone bring them down.

Madeline didn't have any degree on her back beside her high school diploma, the same with Rupert, and she knew that if she had gone to college, things would be different, would be better. But just because that didn't happen for her, it didn't mean that the same couldn't happen for her kids, so that was why she was teaching them to be a force to be reckoned.

On the 13th year of her marriage, when James, her oldest and only boy, was only twelve, Rupert had an accident at the construction site where he worked. He broke his hips and as they didn't have health insurance, they couldn't seek the help of good doctors, so they worked with what they had. Eventually, Rupert's hips healed, but he wasn't the same as before, he wasn't able to do the heavy work like before, so the responsibility to keep their family going, to keep food in the kids' plates and clothes on their back, fell on Madeline's shoulder.

"I can help!" James protested when he was fifteen years old and saw his tired mother come back from work after pulling an all-nighter again. "I'm a man and as a man it is my obligation to help!" Madeline would find that kind of attitude cute, if she wasn't so tired, and knew where that attitude was coming from. Rupert wasn't ashamed to have his wife as the only stable source of income in the house, he was proud of her strength that kept her going even when life was trying to bring her down, but it didn't mean that he had to like it. That he didn't get frustrated seeing his wife carrying that burden alone. And James had been seeing that frustration building inside Rupert for years and now that he was older, he thought he should able to help.

"Listen to me, James Rhodes!" Madeline grabbed her son's face between her calloused hands. "The only help you can offer is to study. Study hard, get a better life, and then you come to help."

“But...” James tried to protest. Madeline loved that kind of fire inside her son, the kind that said that he would fight until his last breath for what was right, for what was better for others. To help others.

"No 'buts'. You think you're a man, but you're still a kid, my kid, so my responsibility. A responsibility that I'll gladly take. So don't come to me again with this nonsense of helping." She could let him get a job. It would be good for him to build character, to give him a sense of responsibility, she knew that, but she also knew that to help them have a better life, a part-time job for James wouldn't be enough and it would mean dropping out of school. So no, she wasn't going to have any of her kids dropping out of school and being forced to grow up earlier than expected just because they were having a minor financial problem. And as long as she had strength in her body, she would keep on fighting.

Madeline's hard words and work were paid later. She cried for hours when James got his acceptance letter from MIT, got his scholarship. Her baby was going to college. Her baby would become something. She cried more on the day she had to say goodbye to James, and stayed on the bus station for hours after the bus departure, thinking 'what now?'. Would the house feel empty without James? She still had her girls, but in a few years, they would be gone too. Well, it didn't matter, not now that half of her job was done. James had left to become something more and she knew he would succeed.

James's first letter from MIT came a week after his leaving. In it, he would tell tales about the world that Madeline dreamed of having but knew she couldn't. She had had younger siblings at the time to feed and, later, her own children, she needed to live in the real world instead. James described everything new he encountered on MIT, somethings she had never heard before. But especially, James described his new roommate.

"A scrawny teenager who is too smart for his own good, with a big mouth, an even bigger attitude and rich as hell. Seriously Ma, I don't think Tony Stark is mentally stable." Stark? The name seemed familiar, but Madeline couldn't put a face on it and didn't waste her time trying. James's words made her smile because she could already predict what was coming. James was a big brother to the core and he had always dreamed of having a baby brother. And, as usual, Madeline wasn't wrong. The next letters were all about Stark and what kind of shenanigans this boy and her son were getting into at MIT.

Madeline fell in love with Anthony Stark the day that James brought a scrawny teenager with a mop of dark brown hair on his head and big and beautiful brown eyes, to spend Thanksgiving with the Rhodes family. Tony, as he asked to be called, was extremely polite, extremely shy and he didn't keep eye contact with anyone besides James. 

“What's wrong with him?” Madeline asked her son when he was helping her dry the dishes. “He doesn't act like the boy you described to me in your letters.” Because in James letters Tony Stark was a bundle of barely contained energy, always talking, always inventing something, always blowing something up.

James sighed and put the dried plate away.

“It's just that he finally realized that I'm not going away.”

“What?”

“Tony Stark isn't a guy who has many friends. No, he isn't a guy who has true friends, friends who aren't after him because of his money. All that BS that I told you in my letters? That was him testing me, trying to see how much I could take.” Madeline smiled. Her son was very stubborn when he put something in his head, and if he decided that he was going to like Tony Stark, despite what everyone else was saying, he was going to like Tony Stark and to hell with the public opinion.

“And you took it all and proved him wrong.”

“Like my mama taught me.” Madeline laughed.

“That's my boy.”

That Thanksgiving wasn't the only holiday that James brought Tony with him. After that,

Christmas came and then New Year. Madeline wanted to ask about Tony's parents, _don't they want to spend time with their kid_ , but James made a negative with his head behind Tony when he saw his mama's face, and Madeline only smiled and hugged the still too scrawny little boy. She really had to put some meat on that kid's bones.

Madeline was there when Howard and Maria Stark died, she was at the funeral, she watched as the priest said some beautiful words and Tony didn't shed a tear. She went back to the Stark Mansion with the procession and after hours hearing people eating the Starks' food and saying good and bad things about the deceased, she realized that Tony wasn't nearby. Madeline went in search of him and found the boy some minutes later in a room that smelled like jasmine. Tony was curled in a corner, close to a grand piano, and hugging his knees to his chest. He was extremely pale and with a lost look on his face that broke Madeline's heart.

“Tony, sweetheart?” Madeline crouched beside him, close enough to hear him mutter repeatedly.

“She's dead. Oh my God, she's dead!” And then the tears finally came.

“Ah, Tony.” And he broke in Madeline's arms, with his face hidden against her chest. His entire frame was trembling, he was sobbing, wailing and saying the same thing over and over again.

"She's dead. My mom. Why is she dead? Oh God! Mom!" Madeline cried with him, hugged him until there were no more tears left, until exhaustion claimed Tony and he slept in her arms.

She really would have loved to have met Maria Stark. Any woman who could break such a wonderful boy's heart was worth meeting.

After that day, something changed in Tony's relationship with the Rhodes family. He finally realized that they were there, and they weren't going anywhere.

They were there, cheering for him and James when they graduated from MIT.

They were there when Madeline called hundreds of time to scold Tony about his destructive behavior, and he accepted the scolding with the shame of a little boy being caught doing a bad thing. He always said sorry in the end and made a promise to be better. A promise they both knew he wouldn't keep.

Tony started to call Madeline 'mama Rhodes' right after his 21st birthday and when he claimed Stark Industries' presidency.

“I'm so proud of you.” She said while caressing his face and Tony smiled a beautiful smile at her. Madeline loved his smile. It was so childlike, so full of wonder, so pure, that she hoped that no one ever destroyed that smile.

Madeline was certain that she was having a heart attack when she heard about Afghanistan.

“Is it true?” It was the first thing that she asked when she called James.

“Yes.” He answered with a somber tone.

"Find him, James." She ordered. "Bring him home."

"Yes, Ma'am."

And James found him. Three months later, in the middle of the desert, with a hole in his chest, but he found Tony and brought him home, as requested.

Madeline had a second heart attack when she watched that interview where Tony said:

“Truth is... I'm Iron Man.”

She was going to kill him. The phone call after that episode was something that made history as the most powerful scolding given by mama Rhodes to anyone. Some words were screamed down the line, starting with something like this:

“Are you out of your mind?! You are an untrained civilian putting yourself at risk! Don't sass me boy, or I'll smack your butt until it turns tomato red! If you die out there I'm gonna kill you! Do you hear me? I'll battle God for your soul and then I'll kill you again! You better be careful, because I'm too old for this shit!”

And ending with something like this:

“And, Tony?”

“Yeah?” Tony answered in a very small voice and with ringing ears.

"I'm so proud of you." She could practically hear the smile she loved so much across the line. "Maria would be so proud of you, too.

“Thanks, Madeline.”

“Always, sweetheart.”

Obviously Tony couldn't keep his promises. Madeline should know her boy better than anyone by now. Palladium poisoning? A nuke through a portal? Don't even get her started on the 'Mandarin Incident'. That one made her scream at the TV and cry desperately in her husband's arms when the world thought that Tony Stark was dead... Again!

When Ultron happened, Madeline only sighed and said:

“I need a drink, a strong one.” And Rupert laughed at his wife until he lost his breath.

And then the Civil War happened and that was what broke the camel's back.

Madeline wasn't mad about what happened to James. About his broken back. She never was the kind of woman to believe in fairytales, she always knew that being in the military, James was always at risk so it wasn't a surprise to receive the news about his accident. Besides, she also knew her son, she knew that he would always fight to the death for what was right, for people's rights, and she would always be proud of him. And Madeline also knew that he would be on his feet again in no time.

No, what made rage boil inside Madeline was getting into that hospital and seeing Tony hooked up to so many machines that he almost disappeared under the colored cables.

"It's just... You are listed as his next of kin, after Colonel Rhodes and, at this moment, Colonel Rhodes isn't in any condition to make this kind of decision for others." The doctor said to her.

“What... What happened to him?” She asked with a voice that almost didn't come out.

The doctors were keeping Tony sedated because of the pain, he had several fractures, concussion, muscle rupture, his fake sternum, put there after his heart surgery, had to be replaced and he had had a minor stroke.

“I'm not sure what exactly happened.” The doctor said. “The only thing that I'm sure of is that someone, or something, had to hit him pretty hard to cause this kind of damage. He was in the Iron Man armor when he was brought in and the armor itself doesn't look good.”

She stayed with Tony and Jim until they got the all-clear from the hospital. This time, she didn't scold him, she only hugged Tony tight against her and caressed his hair and said that everything was gonna be alright when another nightmare woke him in the middle of the night.

Later, Madeline learned about what really happened in the Civil War, learned about the fight, a piece of information that she demanded from James when Tony woke up again, screaming like he was being tortured by some evil being. And the evil being were his memories turned into nightmares.

After another sleepless night, Madeline finally got that strong drink and thought for hours, musing on what she had learned.

How can a person be so stubborn to ignore people's fear? What was wrong with Steve Rogers? Well, she didn't want to know. Rogers was not her problem. Her boys were her problem. She knew James would bounce back, with or without his legs, he was trained for this, to be prepared for the worst, and the Air Force was giving him all the medical and psychological support he needed. But Tony? She wasn't so sure.

Howard Stark's indoctrination consisted in swallowing the pain and taking all the shit the world threw at you like it didn't hurt. To never show weakness. To always be fine. Maria surely must have tried to break this destructive behavior, but a boy always looked up to his father for approval. And after the damage was done, nothing that Madeline did worked either.

Madeline also wasn't so sure what she would do if she ever meet the Avengers after they had hurt her kids.

But the opportunity came at a Veteran's Ball. Rogers was there as a good press move for his group. The Avengers were pardoned, which had caused half of the people in the world to be mad and the other half to cheer for the mistreated heroes. Madeline was in the mad half, but she also understood why they were pardoned. Earth had shown the Universe that it was capable of defending itself, that it had the power to do it, the so called Avengers, so it was obvious that the Universe, at some point, would like to put that defensive power to the test. And it wouldn't be good to anyone if Earth came under attack and half of the Avengers were hiding God knew where.

“Mrs. Rhodes?” A man approached her. A young and very handsome man. Madeline squinted at him and after a second recognized him.

“Lieutenant Wilson.”

“About your son...” Madeline rolled her eyes.

"Please don't talk about my son." Madeline looked at James, who was on the other side of the room having a very animated conversation with some veterans. Madeline could see, under his dress uniform, the shape of the exoskeleton that Tony had built for him. Tony had put James on his feet in no time, and Madeline would love that boy, more than she already loved him, for the rest of her life, so she wasn't in the mood to ruin her night by talking to one of the people who had brought Tony down.

“Ma'am, I just want to say sorry about what happened.” Madeline sighed. She had heard about Sam Wilson from her son, about how they had gotten close while working with the Avengers. They were two military men in a paramilitary force, obviously that they had clicked together because they had so many things in common. So Sam should know, better than anyone, that, in a war, you usually don't come out of it unscathed.

"I understand that you are sorry about my son's accident. But what I really want to know is if you're sorry about everything else, about what you could have done to avoid the accident entirely."

“Ma'am?”

“The Accords, Lieutenant. I heard that the Avengers still haven't signed it.”

"Ma'am, the Accords are a complicated thing."

“Not really. I read it, I understood it, and I don't get why is so hard for you to understand that you are not above the law and that the Accords are about the people's wish to compromise.”

"You read the Accords?" Wilson's surprise shocked Madeline. He wasn't implying... No, that wasn't possible.

"It's a public document, its original draft and amends can be accessed by anyone on the UN's website. Why? You didn't read it?" Wilson's face was answer enough. "Are you telling me that Captain Rogers caused a war against a document that he doesn't know anything about? My son was crippled for nothing?! You blindly followed a man without knowing what he was actually fighting for?"

“Of course not!” Wilson defended himself.

“But you just said that you didn't read the Accords!”

"We didn't read everything, but we had a general idea. Besides, General Ross was supporting it, and you know what happened to him." Everyone knew what had happened to Ross. After the Civil War, information about Ross' illegal work in human experimentation, some very shady business of his while in the Army, as also the Avengers illegal prison, came to the light and the man was practically eaten alive by the masses. "That proves that we were right."

“Right about what, exactly?”

“Governments have agendas.”

"What a surprise!" Madeline said with sarcasm. "People have agendas, Wilson, even your beloved Captain America. So don't come here and tell me that you are sorry when it's obvious that if everything happened again, you wouldn't change a thing."

Sam Wilson was a good man, according to her son's words, but a good man blinded by the weight of Captain America's name. When would these people realize that Captain America was just a man? That he also made mistakes and that, this time, he had screwed up royally? When?

Well, while that didn't happen, Madeline wasn't going to accept anyone's half-hearted apologies. Besides, it wasn't exactly to James they had to say sorry. It wasn't James' heart that was broken, it was Tony's. And until then, mama Rhodes wasn't forgiving anyone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that Howard and Maria died on December 16, 1991. By Marvel's timeline, it would mean that Tony was 21 years old. But I also remember that in Iron Man 1 it was said that Tony was still underage when he became an orphan, so I used that information in this chapter.


	5. Natasha Romanoff

  


Natasha arrived at the new Avengers' base, inside SHIELD's headquarters, to see the team rounding a small television. Pepper was on the screen, chatting with the host of a talk show about the Avengers' situation and the lawsuit that Stark Industries was moving against Steve Rogers.

“Many are saying that the lawsuit is actually Stark's petty vengeance against Steve Rogers because Captain America was right about the Accords.”

“Was he?” Pepper said calmly.

When Natasha had met Pepper Potts, the woman gave Natasha the same impression everyone around Potts had of her. Pepper’s promotion from PA (a stressful but unimportant job, because a PA is always someone behind the curtains, but never in the spotlight) to CEO (an incredible position of power) was the company's talk for months and the rumors were that she got the position because she was sleeping with the boss. Natasha thought the same thing, especially after she had watched how Pepper interacted with Stark. But there was also something more in their relationship. Something that Natasha found out later. Pepper and Tony had a very complex relationship. It was a mixture of partnership, love, hate, frustration, trust and friendship. And when Natasha started to work as Pepper's PA, she had finally seen why the woman had been promoted.

Pepper Potts was a woman commanding a multi-billion dollar company. Being a woman in such a position of power, the only woman on the Board, wasn't easy. Pepper was unique, with a mix of grace and fierceness that made Natasha see her in a new light promptly. Besides, Stark Industries, under Pepper's command, jumped from 25th to 12th position on Fortune 500's list.

“Please tell me where Mr. Rogers was right about the Accords?” Pepper said without changing her tone, but Natasha knew the other woman well enough. Pepper was challenging the interviewer to say the right thing, just for her to prove to him that it was actually the wrong thing. And she wasn't disappointed.

“Captain Rogers...”

“Former Captain Rogers.” Pepper corrected the host and Steve flinched.

Just two days ago, Steve Rogers had been dishonorably discharged from the Army. He lost his rank and all the medals he got with it. Pepper wasn't kidding when she said she would ruin his life. And she had started big, taking from Steve the thing he was most proud of, his military career

“Mr. Rogers said that he disagreed with the Accords because the people behind it had agendas, and former Secretary Ross' imprisonment is proof of this. He used the Accords to commit acts that were later revealed to be illegal.”

“Exactly. Ross broke the Accords and was punished for it. But let me remind you that Ross didn't write the Accords, the UN did. The Accords are not perfect, no law is, especially a new one dealing with something that affects everyone on a global scale, but you can't disagree with it just because you don't agree with the governments behind it. Besides, these same governments were chosen by the people and it's the people who are asking for accountability. The UN were only hearing their plea. And Steve Rogers, who swore to protect the people, ignored this and decided to destroy public and private property because of one man. The Civil War, as you're calling it, in the end, wasn't about a fight between two powerful individuals and their point of view, it was about Rogers trying to protect his best friend no matter what. And this cost billions of dollars in damage, civilians were hurt when that tunnel collapsed and German police officers were severely injured and killed just because they were doing their job. Trying to capture a well-known terrorist and bring him to justice.”

“But it is known that James Barnes is also a victim. He was tortured and brainwashed by HYDRA. Some of the info leaked by the Black Widow took some time to be decoded, but was decoded and allowed us to know how extremely cruel HYDRA can be.”

“I don't disagree that Barnes is a victim, but if he had surrendered himself instead of running he would have had help. Tony was able to get a deal for him with the UN if Rogers signed the Accords. But, as you see, Rogers chose the hard way to deal with it. Now Barnes is a loose cannon who is still on the run. He's a menace and in the end, Rogers didn't help him, just put a bigger target on his best friend's back.”

“Now, back to the lawsuit. Stark Industries suing Steve Rogers for damage of private property and assault. What assault Miss Potts? The official release was that Mr. Stark went to apprehend Mr. Rogers and found resistance. Is that right?”

“HYDRA's files said that Barnes, under the control of the Winter Soldier program, was the person responsible for Howard and Maria Stark's death.” Steve flinched again with Pepper's harsh tone.

These files were in the middle of the others files that Natasha had leaked on the internet, but they were so encrypted that it had taken some years for them to be decoded. A bunch of hackers and Tony himself had been doing the job, but Tony had to step back when the mess with Ultron came to the light and then the Accords happened, which slowed down the process. Now it was public knowledge how America's favorite futurist had become an orphan, and it wasn't because of a car crash.

“But before the public found the truth, Tony found about it thanks to Zemo and his machinations. The real story is that Tony went after Mr. Rogers to help him because he discovered the truth behind Vienna's bombing and the existence of other Winter Soldiers. And when he got there, Zemo played a very graphic video of Howard and Maria Stark's death. Zemo's plan since the beginning was to destroy the Avengers from inside. He never wanted to free the other Winter Soldiers, such as that he had already killed them. And obviously Tony, after watching the video, lost it. He didn't have the best relationship with Howard, but he was very close to Maria.”

“Ms. Potts, are you saying that, actually, Mr. Stark was the one who committed the assault, not the other way around?” Pepper smiled at the host and it wasn't a friendly smile. Natasha knew that smile, she knew that face, it was the same face the other redhead used when she was about to rip a new one in some very obnoxious Board member.

“Tony may fly in a weaponized suit of armor, but under that he still is a human being.A very breakable human being who was beaten and left to die by two super soldiers. The standard procedure to calm down someone emotionally compromised is to hold them tight and wait for them to regain reason not to engage them in a fist fight because that will only make them more furious than they are already. Rogers beat Tony until he couldn't move, then crushed the arc reactor powering the suit and abandoned him without any means to leave because the armor didn't have any power to fly. Tony only survived because FRIDAY, Tony's AI and co-pilot, sent an SOS the moment she lost contact with the suit. If she didn't have this protocol, Tony would be missing until to this day and presumed dead while Captain America would be running into the sunset with his brainwashed and highly dangerous best friend. So tell me again how Mr. Rogers is the victim here.”

They didn't see the host reply because Natasha got the remote control and turned off the TV.

“She's right, you know.” Sam was the first one to speak after a heavy silence settled in the room.

“What?” Steve's voice was nothing more than a whisper.

“When you are trying to reason with someone who is reacting violently because of a massive shock, you don't hit them back. You hold them until the shock passes and they calm down.” Sam answered.

“Even then...” Natasha started to say, having her presence acknowledged by the others. Even after she turned off the TV, everyone was so surprised by the interview and Pepper's words that they hadn't notice her there. “I'm curious. Why did Stark react so violently?”

“He saw his parents being murdered, what did you expect?” Wanda said.

Natasha was surprised by Wanda’s words. It was clear that the other woman was never a fan of Stark, but the Russian understood from where that defensive posture was coming. Natasha had heard from Coulson that after the Avengers' press conference and Everhart's words, Wanda had became more introspective than ever and confessed that she couldn't disagree with the reporter, even if she wanted to very much. It really didn't make any sense for Stark to have a malfunctioning missile. Besides, to blame him was easy because she was putting a face to the cause of her parents' death, even when deep down she knew that Stark wasn't the one to blame, but the rebels fighting against Sokovia's dictatorial government. But she didn't know who they were, and she knew Stark. So she channeled her rage on him, let HYDRA use it, caused mass destruction and was coddled for it, was protected because of it, of what she went through because of her pain. Just because her rage was coming from pain. Why? The means don't justify the ends and she understood when the overprotectiveness come from Clint. He was a father, he saw her as a kid, even if she didn’t like it, and he felt like he had a debt with her because of Pietro. But what about Steve?

What had made Steve take her words about Stark? Believe her, after she had mind-raped him and caused only suffering? What had made him accept her in the Avengers, protect her, but not Stark? Why was he always against everything Stark stood for? Not everything the billionaire inventor did wass bad, or a mistake, and all Wanda needed was a dressing down from a complete stranger to finally see reason and see that something was very wrong with this scenario.

“I know Stark. I met him at his worst, worked with him at his best.” Natasha began to explain. She knew that she and Stark, to outside viewers, didn't part on the best of terms. But his supposed threat, for her, was actually a warning and vice versa. And her report for SHIELD was not the best at the time but was the truth. Stark didn't know how to work when he was at his worst, he got desperate and did stupid things, and for what SHIELD needed him for, he had to learn to control himself. But when he put the armor, it was like it gave him some kind of strength he wasn’t able to find in himself while out of it. So that was why Iron Man yes, Tony Stark no.

Natasha thought that agreeing with the Accords was the first step for Tony to finally find his inner strength. But Steve and his stubbornness ruined everything and Natasha hadn’t help by letting the man go, thinking that her actions would put an end to the fight and that Steve, seeing that Natasha was accommodating his wishes, would be more understanding.

“Watching his parents' murder would have shocked him, but not to extreme violence. We're talking about a man who likes to carry the weight of the world on his back, who takes hits after hits and still stands. But there is one kind of hit that he can't take: betrayal. So I'll ask you again, Rogers: why did Stark react so violently?” Steve hesitated, turned his head and didn't meet Natasha's eyes. But his lack of answer was answer enough. “You didn't tell him.”

“Told him what?” Clint asked and he was extremely pale, probably because the stupidity of his actions was finally catching up with him, at a very slow pace, but catching up with him.

“That he knew. Steve knew, since the fall of SHIELD, that the Winter Soldier, that Barnes, was the one responsible for the Starks death.”

“You also knew.” Steve defended himself and Natasha let out a short bitter laugh.

“Really, Rogers? This is how you're gonna do it? Should I remind you who asked me to not say a thing? And I obeyed. I did it because I thought you wanted to be the one the pass on the hard news mister 'sometimes my teammates don't tell me things'.” Steve cringed like he had been slapped and Natasha really wanted to slap him but controlled herself. “You know, I have a lot of regrets, but I never thought that let you go in that airport would be one of them.”

“Natasha...” Steve called when she was already leaving the room and Natasha stopped, but didn't turn to face the man. “How... How can I fix this?”

“Depends.” She looked over her shoulder to him. “What exactly do you want to fix, Rogers? Your reputation, which let me remind you, you ruined it by yourself, or your friendship with Tony?”

“My friendship with Tony, of course.” Natasha sighed. Steve was not getting the big picture here, but she would draw it for him.

“I think you need to learn a few things about friendship, Rogers before you try to fix anything. Because as far as I know, you are not supposed to choose one friend over the other.” Like she had, Natasha thought as she left the room.

She chose Steve over Tony and now she had lost both. One to his own idiocy, the other because of hers.

 

 

 


	6. Bruce Banner

"So..." The Avengers stopped on their track when they entered the living room and saw Bruce Banner sitting on the battered couch like he belonged there. The new Avengers home base was an old warehouse with such an outdated technology system that it made Steve cringe every time he had to use one of the computers. And that was saying something because Steve wasn't a computer expert. Apparently, Pepper Potts was true to her words of making the Avengers' life, Steve's life, harder than it already was. She had cut off all Stark Industries sponsoring and it didn't matter how much SHIELD begged for upgrades, her answer was always no. "I'm gonna ask this once, and the answer is better be good, what the hell happened?"

Bruce's question was met with silence. Everyone hesitated to say anything until Steve sighed and started to explain what had happened during the Civil War. After he finished, Bruce's eyes passed over each Avenger, like he was analyzing them under a microscope.

"Now that our mighty leader" Steve flinched. Bruce's tone demonstrated how much the doctor wasn't happy with what he had heard. "explained to me what happened, let me tell you what conclusions I reached after seeing the videos and interviews about the subject. Ross is an ass, fact, nobody hates him more than me, but he didn't write the Accords, he was only supporting it and looking for a legal way to control us without reprimand. The Accords were born from people's fear of us, and the uncontrollable force we were becoming, and Ross only wanted something to prove that we were actually a menace instead of heroes. Rogers' attitudes gave him ammunition to show the world that we can't be trusted. After all, if Captain America can't respect the law, who says the others will do the same? Congratulations Rogers, for proving Ross right." Bruce said with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

People tended to forget that just because he always exuded a calm exterior, it didn't mean that he was a calm person. Bruce's core was always boiling with rage, the Hulk was always slamming against his walls, trying to get free, and even before the accident, Bruce was never an easygoing man. He was simply never the kind of guy who lost his temper easily. But when he did, it was a sight to be seen.

"First of all, I read the Accords. The old one and the new one and I didn't see anything there that implies that the Accords were tying our hands. It was all about compromise and accountability. I can relate to both. Especially after Ultron. So, being the reasonable guy that I am, I signed."

"What?" Natasha's shocked face really intrigued Bruce.

"You thought that I wouldn't." Bruce smirked at her. "You really don't know me at all. I signed, but not before I made a deal with the UN. Hulk will only be called if the Earth is under the risk of global extinction. Beyond that, don't even send me an e-mail."

"Bruce, you must realize that it won't matter. You signed the Accords, meaning that you're under UN's power to do whatever they want to do with the Hulk, they can..."

"I'd like to stop you right there, Rogers. Your speech sounds like a freaking broken record and it's clear to me that you're talking without any knowledge of the matter. We're talking here about people wanting some kind of defense against superpowered beings and the only way they can do this is by law. Second, my proposition was approved by 147 countries. Meaning that for one, or two, of them to try to use the Hulk beyond what was agreed they would need the approval of over one hundred countries and that isn't easy. Not every government is corrupt and they would need every single one of them to approve. It would not be something decided by a majority of votes."

"Why are you doing this? Why now? You abandoned us, you ran away after Ultron and now you come back to give us a moral lesson?" Wanda questioned and Bruce's glare was so intense that she felt her powers surge beneath her skin as a form of defense. Bruce's eyes had a tint of green in them and that wasn't reassuring.

"You want to know why I ran away? You?! The one who mind-raped me and set the Hulk free to destroy everything in his path? The one who brought forward on a man suffering from intense PTSD his worst fears and made him use an alien force to boost a system that, by my calculations, would have worked flawlessly if wasn't for the Mind Stone? You want to know why I ran. You want me to laugh now in your face, or let's leave that for later?"

"Bruce, I know you're mad..."

"Mad?" Bruce growled to Natasha. "My dear, if I were mad I would be green right now, and you all know this. This is why you are gripping your weapons like your life depends on it, which is actually true. But no, I'm not mad, I'm severely disappointed. Especially with Steve."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You know, when we met, you told me that you didn't care with what people said about me, only cared about what I was capable of doing as a scientist, and I was glad for that because for the first time, someone looked at me and saw only Bruce Banner, not the raging monster he can be."

"Unlike Stark." Clint muttered under his breath.

"Come again, Barton?" Bruce demanded and Clint raised his chin in a very arrogant posture.

"I heard that the first thing Stark said to you was how he was a big fan of how you lose control and turn into a big green monster." Bruce had heard from Coulson, before he came to confront the Avengers, about how Clint was the one with the most unresolved rage issues. Coulson suspected that the fact that Clint had left his family, broken his promises to his kids, to fight alongside a man and found out later that what he was fighting for was wrong, was what was fueling all this bitterness toward Stark. Because Clint was only an echo of everyone's else assumptions. The one where Steve Rogers can't do anything wrong.

"And that affected me more than Rogers disregards of the Hulk. Because Rogers ignored Hulk's existence, like I had been foolishly doing all those years. Tony, on the other hand, embraced the Hulk, accepted him and showed me that the more I try to control the Hulk, the more he will try to escape. Even more, Tony trusted me. Trusted that our friendship was strong enough that even the Hulk wouldn't want to ruin it. And that is the main problem here, isn't? Trust. You don't trust Tony, especially you Rogers. That's why you fought so hard against the Accords. Because something that Tony stands for can't be good."

"Well, history told me that I wasn't exactly wrong." Steve said in defiance, crossing his arms on his chest as a defense mechanism.

"History also told me that you misplace your trust with alarming regularity." Bruce accused and Steve frowned, without understanding. "You trusted that witch, who volunteered to be HYDRA's rat lab, moved by a shallow need for revenge, over a teammate who had your back on the battlefield for years. You let Thor attack Tony, who was unarmed, you threw your shield at Tony who was, again, unarmed, and when everything was over, you conveniently forgot that I helped create Ultron. Worse, you invited Maximoff to be an Avenger. Do you want to know why I didn't come back? Because of this. Do you want to know why Tony left? Because of this."

Wanda looked ashamed after Bruce's words, Natasha too, Sam was pensive and Clint seemed to finally be getting a reality check. But Steve's stubborn face was showing that he was in need of further proof of his mistakes, and Bruce was very happy to give it to him.

"Besides, in the end," Bruce said, getting up from the couch and smoothing any creases in his shirt. "it was never about the Accords, it was all about Barnes."

"They were going to shoot him on sight." Sam explained.

"What a shock." Bruce said with sarcasm. "The police force was ordered to take a well-known terrorist down."

"Bucky is not..."

"He is, Rogers!" Bruce cut Steve in the middle of his speech. "Brainwashed or not, this doesn't change the fact that Barnes was the one who killed all those people, including a man you called a friend during the War, the father of another man you also called a friend."

"Bucky is also my friend."

"And you chose him over Tony. Lied for him, even. The man who can't stand his teammates lying to him."

"It wasn't a lie. I mean, I was trying to spare Tony..."

"Of what? Massive pain? How did that worked for you?" Steve didn't answer because the answer was obvious. It didn't work. Now, nothing he did would work. The truth was that no matter how good his intentions were, he had messed everything up. He had paved his way to hell while trying to do the right thing. "In the end, I was right."

"About what?" Natasha asked.

"We were never a team. We were just a highly dangerous chemical mixture waiting for an explosive reaction. Now if you excuse me, I have to go to Stark Tower, fix the mess you all made." Ask for forgiveness and hope that somewhere inside his bruised and abused heart, Tony would find enough kindness to forgive Bruce.

 

 

 


	7. FRIDAY

_July 2nd, 2016, 3:45 pm_

 

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Colonel?"

"How many times has Tony read this letter?"

"Twenty-five and counting."

"And the flip phone? Has he ever used it?"

"No. But Boss spends a lot of time staring at it."

A sigh.

"FRIDAY."

"Yes, Colonel?"

"Can you hack this phone?"

"I already did. Boss was very offended by this Jurassic piece of technology and asked me to transfer all the data to his Starkphone. Any call to it will be redirected to Boss' personal phone."

"Good. Then do me a favor, please."

"Always, Colonel."

"If Steve Rogers call, block him."

"Would that be wise? The Captain might be calling because of an emergency."

"If that ever happens, he'll use official channels, not Tony's personal number. I'll let you judge if the call is an emergency or not, but don't let that man have any kind of contact with Tony."

"As you wish, Colonel."

 

_August 31st, 2017, 6:36 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Unknown number.

Searching database.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"Hey, Tony, it's me... Er, Steve Rogers? I don't know if you're aware, but we are back in the USA. I mean, we were pardoned. So, we are back at the compound and... Well, you're not here. I thought you were here, but when I looked into your lab and quarters, they were empty. Also, I didn't know you knew Sharon Carter or Peggy. Why did you never tell me this? Well, I'm calling just to tell you that my offer still stands. If you need us, we are here for you. I'm here for you."

Call ended.

Message deleted.

 

_September 3rd, 2017, 10:29 am_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"What the hell, Stark?! Not everyone has an ugly tower to go back to. The compound was our home. How could you let Potts kick us out of our home? And really? A lawsuit? You are pressing charges against me for assault?! Must I remind you who threw the first punch? I was defending myself, and Bucky, you were the one trying to kill us. You're such a child. If things don't go your way you throw a tantrum. Very well, let's see how long this will go. I hope you don't try to build another murder bot just to spite me."

Call ended.

Message deleted.

 

_September 22nd, 2017, 2:15 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"Did you send Everhart on purpose to ruin our press conference? Wanda is desolate. How could you do this to her? Hasn't she suffered enough? You know what? I don't even know why I called, I'm too angry right now to have any kind of decent conversation with you."

Call ended.

Message deleted.

 

_September 25th, 2017, 11:09 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"I lost my rank and was dishonorably discharged from the Army. You know, the lack of contact is starting to make me realize that maybe you're not hearing these messages. Or you are and you don't care. From what everyone is telling me, I'm starting to see that I could have done things a little different, but I didn't and now I have to face the consequences. But I'm trying here, I'm making an effort. What about you? You can't call out my failures and do nothing about yours, it's not fair..." Silence. "Damn it, Tony! You can't just throw away everything we went through together just because of one mess up. If that was the case, I would have ended our friendship a long time ago. Come on Tony..."

Blocked call.

Message deleted.

 

_September 27th, 2017, 8:51 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"Natasha is back and I saw Pepper's interview on that talk show. Did I really hurt you so badly? That really happened? You could have died?! I'm sorry Tony, I'm really sorry. I thought you had a way out of there. You always have a way out of trouble. Maybe you're not so invincible as I thought you were. Natasha said that this can't be fixed anymore, our friendship. Please tell me she's wrong. She's wrong, right? Right?!"

Call ended.

Message deleted.

 

_December 24th, 2017, 11:42 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"It's Christmas' eve and I don't even know why I'm calling, you never call back anyway. I think I'm bored. We were pardoned, but until we sign the Accords, we're only allowed to go to low-risk missions and under SHIELD's command. Wanda is better, but she still misses the compound, but Vision showed up yesterday to spend the Christmas with us. Thank you for let him come. Clint and Scott went back to their families. Laura opened an exception for Christmas, but she's still mad with Clint. There are a few agents here celebrating with us, but I don't know. I remember the last Christmas, the one before the war, when we still were a team, a family... And I never thought that I would be so nostalgic. What happened Tony? Where did we go wrong? It is not only about the Accords, is it? It is because I lied to you? I didn't do it on purpose, but you have to understand that this kind of thing is not easy to tell. Or maybe I did on purpose and I'm just creating excuses to absolve myself. I don't know. Merry Christmas Tony, I hope you're well."

Call ended.

The message was stored for further analysis.

 

_January 4th, 2018, 5:39 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"I read the Accords... They are not so bad. But even then, they're not right. We shouldn't have to ask for permission to save people, this is not..."

Blocked call.

Analysis indicates that the subject doesn't know anything about international policy. Call Director Coulson to inform him about this problem.

Message deleted.

 

_January 10th, 2018, 7:22 pm_

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"How come you have time to call Coulson and tell him that I need to learn about diplomacy, but refuses any contact with me? With the Avengers? We're trying here, Tony. I'm trying. We are still a team, aren't we? Come on, Tony. It's been almost two years, you can't hold a grudge this long, it’s not healthy..."

Blocked call.

The subject is still under the delusion that this is about him.

Message deleted.

 

_February 15th, 2018 12:19 am._

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"I'm sorry, Tony! I'm so fucking sorry! Please, please pick up, please! I don't know what to do anymore. I get it, I finally get it. I screwed up, it's not about me, but what I did. I should have tried harder to understand you, I shouldn't have chosen between you and Bucky, I shouldn't have lied. I know, I really know now. In the end, it was never about the Accords. But it’s just that when I had nothing, I still had Bucky and I couldn't let him go so easily. I think I couldn't let go of that life so easily. I'm seeing a therapist now and I finally realized that all this time I was still living in the forties and I'm sorry for this. I really am. Please, Tony, I want to make things right. Please, pick up. Please..."

Call ended.

Message stored.

 

_April 4th, 2018 3:50 pm._

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"I miss you, Tony. I really do."

Call ended.

Message stored.

 

_May 29th, 2018, 2:16 am._

 

Incoming call.

Caller: Steven Grant Rogers

Redirecting the call.

"Stark here, leave a message, but I'm not making any promises to call you back." Beep!

"Happy Birthday, Tony."

Call ended

Message stored.

 

_May 30th, 2018, 4:59 pm._

 

Calling.

Receiver: Steven Grant Rogers

Call connected.

"Tony?"

"Please, stop calling."

"FRIDAY?"

"Boss will call you when he's ready."

"And when is this gonna happen?"

"Probably never."

"I can't give up, FRIDAY. I have to keep trying."

"Some friendly advice, Mr. Rogers. Some bridges can't be rebuilt, and this one was burned to the ground.”

"I can't accept this."

"If you can't, then you haven’t learned anything in the past two years."

"And what would that be?"

"That you are not needed anymore."

Call ended.

 

 


	8. Harley and Stephanie Keener

Despite the joke and the fact that Tony had left him dripping wet in the middle of a cold night, Tony Stark and Harley Keener really did form a bond, because they had so many things in common. For example, both were geniuses, and precocious ones, both were bullied at school, both had an absent father, in Harley's case, he literally had an absent father, both liked to build, invent, blow things up, and both became orphans at a really young age.

Harley's mother died two years ago during a robbery that went wrong. When Harley got the news, the first thing he did was to run and hide in the garage, in his beloved workshop that Tony had built especially for him, and block the outside world for two days. It wasn't a smart move, Harley admits, because he had a little sister to look after and she was as lost as him, but he couldn't think straight at the time, he could only feel the pain consuming him, eating him alive and leaving nothing but bones behind.

Suzanne Keener's funeral was on a rainy day and had only a few people attending it. After that, a neighbor took Harley and Stephanie (Harley's eight years old sister) home and spent the night with them because the next day Social Services would be paying a visit.

The idea of Social Services paying them a visit scared Harley more than his mother's death. What was going to happen to them? Did they find their father? His mother didn't have any relatives who could take them in. Would they go into the system? If so, Stephanie had a bigger chance than him of being adopted. Harley was fifteen years old, nobody wants to adopt a teenager too smart for his own good and with an attitude.

Harley spent a week in a state of nerves that wouldn't let him eat or sleep properly. For a week he imagined all the possible scenarios for his future and none of them had formed a good picture in his head. But then, the lawyer showed up. A middle-aged man in an expensive suit and with a kind smile and he told Social Services that he was there on behalf of Anthony Stark.

Harley knew he was too young to have a heart attack, especially because he was an active boy, he was on the track team at the school (years running from bullies made him pretty fast on his legs), he had a healthy diet, he didn't have a history of heart disease in the family, but he was sure he was having a heart attack. Sure, he and Tony were close, they did video chats once a week and the last summer vacation he spent as an intern in Stark Industries' facilities in California. Tony was his mentor, his friend, but he had his own problems to deal with (like that Civil War everybody was talking about), so why would he care about Harley's problems?

But care he did. It wasn't easy to convince Social Services that Tony would be a good legal guardian. The man had money, that was a bonus, it meant that he alone would be able to provide for two kids, but he didn't have mental stability, security, to raise these kids.

When Harley realized that Tony might not be approved as a legal guardian, he panicked again, harder than the day he had lost his mother. Tony was the only constant in his life, besides Suzanne and Stephanie, and they were trying to take that from him.

In the end, Pepper Potts (The Goddess, because that's what the woman was in Harley's eyes) did the impossible, she convinced Social Services to approve Tony.

"I have letters from Tony's therapist and she says that he is ready for this change. I also have e-mails from Suzanne Keener showing that she approved of Tony's relationship with her kids." 'Was his mother keeping contact with Tony?' Harley thought while he and Stephanie were sitting on the stairs' top step, eavesdropping on Ms. Potts and the social worker's conversation.

"Miss Potts, this is all good, but Mr. Stark's mental health is not the problem here. Our psychologists will talk to him and come to their own conclusions. We weren't able to find the kids' father, and it pains me to say this, but Mr. Stark is our best shot at the moment as a foster parent. The kids themselves want to go with Mr. Stark, and despite what people may think, the government won't disregard the kids' wishes, especially when we already have so many in our shelters waiting for a family. When a child becomes an orphan but already has someone to take them in, we can only say thanks to the heavens for this small miracle. But you have to admit that Mr. Stark isn't the safest option. The Civil War is in the news, it is all the people are talking about now. Iron Man fought against Captain America because of the Accords..." The woman shut up instantly, probably because Pepper's face was contorted in a displeased expression.

"By your tone, Ms. Brimmighan, you're saying that if Captain America shows up right now asking to be the Keener's foster parent you would approve him without batting an eye. But as it is Mr. Stark, we have a problem."

"You have to admit that Mr. Stark doesn't have the best background supporting him, so it doesn't give us the confidence that he's the best option."

"And Captain America is?"

"This is not about Captain America, Ms. Potts."

"Actually, it is. I was Mr. Stark's PA for ten years and I've been his CEO for six, and let me tell you something. Mr. Stark is not the easiest man to deal with or to read, but I learned how to read him and after I became a CEO I discovered that Mr. Stark was the least of my problems. The business world is an ocean full of white sharks, most of them male white sharks, who look at me and only see a pretty face that got somewhere because she spread her legs to her boss. So I had to learn how to battle these sharks while trying to keep my head above water. And I learned how to read these sharks the same way I learned with Mr. Stark."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that it’s clear that you don't like my boss and everything he represents. You are what they are calling 'team Captain America'. I'm not gonna argue with you about your tastes, even if they are bad, but I'll leave you with a warning: to do the best thing for the Keener siblings is not only Mr. Stark's wish, it's mine too, then keep in mind that we are gonna fight for them, I'm gonna fight for them, and it won't be pretty. So you have two options here: to considerate our offer or to see us in court. And I assure you, there'll be tears, there'll be blood, but I'll get what I want."

So this was why Pepper Potts was a goddess in Harley's eyes. For Stephanie, she was a badass princess and Harley was sure that his mother would love for Stephanie to have Ms. Potts as a role model.

As promised, Ms. Potts, in the end, got the siblings' legal guard and Tony opened the old Stark Mansion, in New York, to give them a real home.

The first year wasn't easy for them. There were a lot of tears and nightmares. Stephanie, in the first three months, would wake up crying and calling for their mother. The new city, new school, new friends, new life, didn't help to make a smooth transition and in the end, they started to see a family therapist to deal with the pain of loss and sudden change. Social Services was still cautious, but when Tony was approved in all their tests they were forced to recognize that this could work. Tony was promoted from legal guardian to father when the adoption papers finally got the judge's signature.

Meanwhile, Ms. Potts kept all this revolution in Tony's life out of the media's eyes. Not that they would care about this, they were too preoccupied with the Civil War, the new Accords and the possibility of the Avengers returning to America to pay any attention to what was happening in Tony's life. Besides, after said war, Tony became a recluse and nobody knew he had moved back to the old mansion that was very far away from the chaos that was Manhattan.

So life moved on and after a bumpy start, they finally reached a level of comfort around each other like any other normal family. They were happy.

At 3:15 pm on a Friday, Harley parked his mother's old Chevy truck in front of Stephanie's school. The pick-up truck was a gift from Tony on his sixteen birthday, a memoir from his late mother that made Harley cry for ten minutes and Tony flush because he didn’t know how to deal with crying teenagers. Stephanie laughed for ten minutes watching a flustered Tony try to console Harley.

And speaking of Stephanie... She wasn't in her usual spot, under the cedar tree, waiting for Harley. Actually, there was no one in the school's front yard except for a lone teacher hugging some pamphlets. Harley got out of the car, locking it with two clicks from the keychain, and approached the teacher.

"Ms. Collins?"

"Hey, Harley! Have you come for the meet and greet?"

"What?"

"The meet and greet. Here, take a pamphlet." Harley took the paper from her hands. It was a simple pamphlet, but it had the picture of some familiar faces. The Avengers. "I think it's just started. It's happening in the gym. Stephanie must be there."

"Thanks, Ms. Collins." Harley took the path to the gym, throwing the pamphlet in the first trash can he found. Stephanie hadn’t said anything about the Avengers doing a publicity stunt in her school, because since they had come back, almost a year ago, everything the Avengers did was publicity stunts, press conferences, some low-level missions, meet and greet, some charity balls, anything to prove to the people who were still angry or afraid of them that they could be trusted even without the Accords.

Harley entered the gym to see students, their parents or relatives, teachers and some security guards rounding a very well known group. The Avengers were on a small stage built in front of a big banner with the famous 'A' symbol. There was a photographer taking some pictures and children squealing and screaming for the heroes' attention. Harley searched the crowd for his sister because he knew her well enough to say that she was in trouble right now. Why? Because she had left the mansion that morning using all the Iron Man merchandise she could find. T-shirt, sneakers, bag, lunchbox, everything, to have a meet and greet with Captain America.

It didn't take long for Harley to find Stephanie and as he predicted, she was in trouble. Stephanie was fighting with a classmate dressed like Captain America and apparently they were screaming loud enough to be heard over the noise the crowd was making.

"Oh no." Harley whispered when he saw that Stephanie's screeches had caught Captain America's attention. If Rogers tried to intervene, the American hero's blood would stain these floors, because Stephanie looked like she was ready to jump on someone's jugular.

Harley hurried to his sister's side and caught her by the waist just in time to avoid the punch that Stephanie was aiming at her classmate's face.

"Is everything alright here?" Roger's baritone voice reached the siblings' ears. Stephanie hissed like an angry cat, with her blond hair falling in disarray all around her round face while her blue eyes were promising death to the boy she was fighting with while she tried at all costs to get out of her brother's tight grip.

"She is a bully!" The boy pointed at Stephanie and Harley frowned. Really? This is what he was gonna do? Call Captain Ass-Butt to help? Maybe Harley should let his sister go, see how far the boy would keep his brave facade with an enraged blond over him and punching his face in.

"Miss, bullying is not nice." Oh my God! Captain Idiot was trying to scold Stephanie, who went still in Harley's arms, and that was not good. Stephanie might be young, but in the last two years she had had so many strong role models in her life: Sharon, Pepper, Rhodey, Mama Rhodes, Tony, that you didn’t bullshit Steph and lived to tell the story. She was the pride and joy of the Amazing Trio (Sharon, Pepper and Madeline) and maybe it was time for Captain Moron to learn that.

Harley let Stephanie go and she didn't move for a minute, probably because she was assessing the situation and thinking where she should strike first: the jugular or the balls?

"You are an Iron Man fan." Wanda, Harley's mind supplied, said when she approached the group. It was clear that Steph was an Iron Man fan, she was even wearing the plastic faceplate mimicking the armor's faceplate.

"What gave you this idea? The shirt, the colors, the fact that I was about to beat this bloody idiot for saying shit about Iron Man?"

"Language young lady." Rogers admonished her and Harley snorted. Stephanie looked like a pre-pubescent Disney princess with her gold hair, big blue eyes, fair skin and small frame, but she had a sharp tongue like the Evil Queen and she wouldn't spare the Avengers of her crude words if they keep pushing her buttons like that. Especially Captain Moron.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Stephanie screeched again.

"Look, you are entitled to be an Iron Man fan, but it's not right to beat someone just to defend one man. To hurt someone in favor of another is wrong." Rogers said and Harley blinked, and blinked again, trying to understand what happened here. Had he heard right?

"Unbelievable," Harley said and Wanda and Rogers' attention went to him. "Get off your high horse mister, you said 'fuck you, world!' and maimed civilians and the German police force, who were doing nothing more than their job, to protect one man, and now you're giving my sister a moral lesson? Ironic, at least." Rogers was so pale after Harley's words that he worried that the man would faint right at that moment. And wouldn't that be priceless? "Come on, Stephanie, let's go home."

Stephanie didn't look like she wanted to go. Actually, she looked like she wanted to stay and keep on fighting.

"Steph!" Harley called in a harsher tone and the girl finally moved, but not before she left a message that the Captain would never forget.

Stephanie marched to Rogers and kicked him in the shin.

The act probably didn't hurt Rogers so much, but its significance was clear.

"You are a bully!" Stephanie accused Rogers and passed by Harley with her head held high with pride, like a Disney princess. Harley laughed and hurried to catch up with his sister and he couldn't wait to tell the Amazing Trio about what happened. But of one thing he was sure:

Suzanne would have been extremely proud.

  


 


	9. Happy Hogan

Happy pulled out the chair and sat in front of Clint at the table.

"So," He started to say, crossing his arms over his chest in a threatening posture. "should I call the police?"

"What?" Clint frowned. He wasn't doing anything illegal this time, just drinking coffee.

"You've been sitting in this same spot for two weeks, guarding the tower. Why?" Clint was surprised that Happy had noticed this when nobody else had called out the Avenger for his behavior. Sure, once in a while he got a curious look from a passerby, after all, his face was plastered on the news for quite some time, but after the first week, he didn’t get much attention anymore.

The coffee shop wasn't close to Stark Tower, but you could see its upper floors while in the shop. And it was from these floors, from the penthouse exactly, that every day, at 5 o'clock pm, you could see the Iron Man armor flying out to somewhere on the north side of New York. Sometimes Iron Man flew low enough to see the people on the street and acknowledge them with a wave of his hand. Other times he just went straight to north without looking down.

"It's just…" Clint deflated. "I was hoping…"

"That Iron Man would see you down here and drop by for a chat." Clint looked surprised by Happy's answer, for the other man to have read him so easily.

Happy scowled.

People usually thought that he was just a goofy bodyguard and driver, that his position was just for show, for Tony's amusement, and forgot that you couldn’t be a licensed bodyguard without the proper training. And Happy had had enough training in the Marines. He was discharged because of an injury he got while boxing for the military, but he was discharged with honors and medals (unlike a certain super soldier). He was a good soldier and just because he wasn't serious all the time it didn’t mean he did not take his job seriously. Besides, you couldn’t work for Tony Stark and be uptight all the time. The genius easygoing attitude was infectious.

"Well, it's been two years." Clint said like this would explain everything and for Happy, it did.

"So what? You think that after two years Tony should forgive, forget and move on? Forget that he was beaten almost to death by the man who was supposed to be the paradigm of good, beat almost to death by the man he was never able to live up to in Howard's eyes? Tony is supposed to forget that a former HYDRA agent messed with his head, showing him his worst fear, pushing him to screw up, and she was forgiven but he was not." Happy said with sarcasm and every word coming from the bodyguard's mouth was like a knife in Clint's gut. "No! I got it! Tony is supposed to forget that when he tried to do the right thing, after years of Rogers telling him that all he did was screw up, Rogers decides that the right thing is actually wrong because Tony is the one doing it. Do you even realize what you did? You all are so delusional that you believed that the Accords were Tony's doing so he was the one who should get rid of it, and you got mad because he didn't. Well, reality check, the Accords were 117 countries’ doing and they only asked for Tony to try to convince you to sign it because in their eyes Tony was more approachable than the other Avengers. He was the one with the most knowledge of diplomacy because he has years of experience in this field. You can't have a contract with the government if you don't know anything about politics."

"I know, okay?! I know we screwed up, that I said things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have and I'm sorry!"

"It's not exactly me you should say sorry to."

"Well, I'm trying to apologize, but he isn't letting me. Every time we try any kind of contact, we find a brick wall. Talk about stubbornness." Clint mumbled and Happy let out a sardonic laughter.

"You think that Tony is the one blocking the Avengers attempt of contact? Think again."

"If it's not him, then who is it?"

"Take a wild guess."

Clint thought for a while until he reached the logical conclusion. Who was the first one to rain down on the Avengers like the fire of hell? Who kicked them out of their home, was prosecuting them and making sure to ruin their image, Captain's image, to the public because she was beyond pissed, she was furious about what they did?

"Pepper."

"It's Ms. Potts to you. And you really are naïve if you think that only Pepper is responsible for the blocking. Despite what you all may think, Tony does have loyal friends who are more than happy to put him first, to protect him and not let anyone bring him down." Just like Coulson had said on their first day back on American soil. And now Clint could see what a fool he was to think that Tony only had Pepper and Rhodes in his corner. It also made him realize how little he knew the other man.

"Does he know that you're doing this? Deciding his life for him?" Because a dark side of Clint was gloating with this perspective. Tony had an awful habit of trying to control everything, especially other people's life, with the excuse that he was only doing the best for them. It was what he had done with Wanda when he put her under house arrest without her consent, it was what had happened with Ultron when he had tried to save the world before the world needed any saving. When Tony tried to control everything, things usually got out of control. Who said that the same wouldn’t happen with Tony's friends?

The other side of him, the rational side, was thinking that what Tony's friends were doing was just plain wrong.

Happy snorted.

"Stupid are the people who think they can hide things from Tony under his nose. Although Rogers was able to do that for years, but I think he only succeeded because Tony never imagined that Captain Perfect was such a hypocrite."

"Yes, I get it, Steve was an ass! But this isn't about Steve.'

"On the contrary, this is all about Rogers. After all, he asks you to jump and you do, without even questioning how high. You just do because he's Captain America and he does nothing wrong. Now you're mad for having followed that man blindly, for not asking what you were fighting for. You're mad at yourself and guilty because you didn't stop to ask and this lapse caused unnecessary injuries and destruction. This lapse ruined your marriage, your family life, your career as an Avenger and you're guilty and think that asking Tony for forgiveness will fix everything instantly. Newsflash to you, it won't. And just because you're feeling like shit it doesn't give you the excuse to drag Tony down with you and your problems."

"Tony is part of my problems." And that was the wrong thing to say because Happy's face acquired a very ugly scowl. "I mean, I'm feeling like shit, it’s true, and I'm feeling guilty and restless because I'm trying to make amends here but he's... You're not letting me. Besides, you're stopping Tony from making this kind of decision. How can you possibly know he's not going to forgive us?"

"If you want atonement for your sins, Barton, go find a church. And as for how we know? We are Tony's friend, his true friends. We know him better than anyone, we can read him between the cracks of his mask. Besides, we didn't tell him what we are doing, but we are not delusional to think that he doesn't know. He does know and he didn't ask us to stop. So go home Barton, you lost your chance to get any forgiveness years ago." Happy got out of the chair, ready to go, but Clint's next words stopped him.

"You say you know Tony, but I also know him, even if I wasn't very nice to him. And I know that he will give us a chance because that's who he is. He is the forgiving type." Barton, for a spy and a former mercenary, was really naïve.

"Barton, you just didn't fuck everything up, you betrayed him. I don't know how much you really think you know Tony, but the last person Tony trusted that betrayed him ended up dead by his own hands. Consider yourself lucky." Happy turned on his heels, ready to leave when he remembered something. "And stop with the stalking or I'll call the cops to do with you what you really deserve, instead of being pardoned, being thrown in jail and left there to rot." Happy left after this warning that he would follow through if he ever spotted Barton in that coffee shop again.

Because if Happy had to be the wall between the Avengers and Tony, he would be that wall until his last breath. A stubborn and unbreakable wall.

  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MCU didn't say what was in Happy's past, his history, except for the boxing, but he could have learned and used it in so many different ways, so I created a history for him because sometimes the MCU differs from the comics in some aspects. I hope you liked it.


	10. James Rhodes

James Rhodes could see that it wasn't exactly him the Avengers were expecting when the armor landed beside the group. Their faces were a clear reflection of their thoughts, especially Rogers’ face. They were hoping, when they spotted the little dark dot far away in the sky, that the aerial support called by SHIELD for that situation would actually be Iron Man. Well, too bad, because Iron Man was done with this backstabbing team, they just hadn’t received the memo yet. No, actually, they had. In the last two years, all that Rogers and company had gotten were memos about how Tony was done with them, the problem was that they hadn’t registered the news yet.

James “Rhodey” Rhodes had known Tony Stark for over thirty years, and this was a lifetime. He had met Tony at MIT and had fallen in love with that scrawny teenager with too much attitude immediately, even when Tony kept testing James’ patience over and over again. Actually, years of friendship later James realized that what Tony was always testing in him wasn't James’ loyalty, but his love for Tony. When he realized that, James wished that Howard was still alive so he could kill the man himself. Everybody knew that 99.9% of Tony's insecurities were because of Howard. The other 00.1% was the world that liked to suck Tony dry and judge him all the time because the genius didn’t fit any stereotype. Rogers and his band were in this 00.1%.

James should have seen it sooner. It was amazing how he could read Tony so easily, even when his little brother was being particularly difficult, but he hadn’t read the Avengers, especially Rogers. Maybe he had been too awestruck to have finally met Captain America to see beyond the man’s carefully placed masks. Because Steve Rogers had masks, carved even more deeply than Tony's. After all, the man's history was all about fighting to prove himself and, after he survived Project Rebirth and was promoted from private to captain, he had to fight harder to prove that he was a man worthy to be followed. So he had to build masks to hide any weakness, just like Tony. And James admired that in Rogers, he really did, that kind of strength was what had prompted him to enlist. Captain America was an inspiration for generations post World War Two. But even being a super soldier, an example for people, Rogers still was a human being and had flaws like everybody else. And worse, he had flaws and a severe case of PTSD.

James knew that he should have seen that too, but he hadn’t because he was used to Tony's kind of PTSD, which was mostly made of panic attacks and nightmares. Rogers’ situation was a little bit different.

Captain Rogers couldn't let go of the past. He had spent 70 years in the ice, but while for Rogers it was only a few seconds, for the world it was really 70 years Rogers' sacrifice for the greater good was praised to this day, but after the Civil War, when James was still on bed rest and with nothing better to do, he had read all the reports available about the mission that turned Rogers in what Tony liked to call a 'capsicle’. He needed to understand what had happened, what had made a man like Rogers, who inspired soldiers to follow him beyond enemy lines, be so single-minded when Bucky Barnes was involved and not trust governments. James knew that politics had agendas, everyone did, but it was people's hope for the best that made them still vote. Rogers didn’t have that kind of faith. He enlisted to help his country, he agreed to be a lab rat for this purpose, Project Rebirth was a success on him, but only on him, and because of that he was promptly dismissed when the disaster with HYDRA and the death of Dr. Erskine happened, just when hours before he had been pampered and praised for his courage to undergo such a hard trial. He was a super soldier now, but he was still seen as that sick kid from Brooklyn: useless and a waste of time. When Rogers thought that he could finally make a difference, that he could stop trying to prove himself because now they would listen to him, he was ignored and in the middle of his disappointment, he was used by a politician as a 'showgirl'. To go from private to captain, Rogers had to do what he thought he would never do again: fight to be heard.

Steve Rogers was called a leader but he didn’t know a thing about leadership. Sure, he inspired people, fought alongside his peers, but he never saw the bigger picture. Rogers had argued that the Accords were wrong not just because they were tying their hands, but because they were putting the responsibility on someone's else shoulders, when it should be on them, and that was when James had realized that for someone who had been in the Army, Rogers had no clue how the chain of command worked. He didn’t know that when you make a mistake in the battlefield, not only you were held responsible for it, but so was your commanding officer, because you were their responsibility. And how could Rogers know that when he hadn’t been taught about it? The Captain made a name for himself by breaking the rules, by defying his superiors' orders without thinking about the consequences of his actions. He never stopped to think what kind of things would happen to those commanding officers when they had to respond for Rogers' insubordination to their own superiors. In a way, even with him being tossed aside by the Army when Project Rebirth technically failed, the super soldier had still been unconsciously spoiled by them. Rogers had been praised by his attitudes instead of punished, and given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, even build his own team.

The Howling Commandos were a magnificent thing, but even being constituted by soldiers, they didn't follow military rules. They followed the Captain to war but if they did something wrong, they weren't disciplined by the Army. They were an independent task force and that's when the mistakes began. If the Army had been more strict on the Commandos, Rogers would have learned something about hierarchy and wouldn't have tried to apply the same rules to the Avengers. And then, after being defrosted, he had started to work for SHIELD. Fury was so blinded by having a national icon, a true hero, under his command that he let Rogers get away with almost anything, following the same M.O the Army had done years before, making the same mistakes. The spy should have known better, starting with the fact that Rogers shouldn't ever had been cleared for duty after the severe trauma he went through. But desperate times call for desperate measures, right? The Earth was under alien attack and they needed a response team asap. All this had been doomed to fail from the start and James wouldn’t lie and say that he hadn’t been flattered when he was called to be an Avenger, but he should have seen that something was wrong when Tony stepped out of a team for whom he gave his sweat and blood. James should've seen that it was something that went beyond Ultron and Sokovia. But he had been flattered and star-struck to finally have the opportunity to work with Captain America.

It took a collapsed tunnel in Romania and a destroyed airport in Germany for James to finally come out of his star-struck stage.

Rogers wasn't a leader, he was a man out of time, incapable of compromising, without any knowledge of politics or a chain of command, suffering from depression and PTSD. Rogers' attitudes were moved by extreme guilt. In Rogers’ mind, if he had held Barnes tighter in that train, the man wouldn't have fallen in HYDRA’s clutches, he wouldn't have been brainwashed and forced to commit several murders. Rogers was always calling Tony out about how the genius was always letting himself be driven by guilt, which made him make more mistakes while trying to fix the previous ones, but the Captain wasn't so different. He hurt his teammates, he tore apart families, he hurt civilians and a task force that was only doing was their job, because he was moved by guilt. He painted a bigger target on Barnes' back, he ignored Tony's help because of guilt and an incredible lack of trust in people who didn’t agree with him.

James should have seen all this, because if he had, his best friend wouldn't have ended up in a three day coma, with a broken body and a broken heart, he wouldn't have had to call Pepper and bring her back to New York when her relationship with Tony was so unstable, almost finished, but Pepper loved Tony and James knew no one better than her to have his little brother's back while he was incapable of doing so.

As soon as James had been discharged from the Hospital, before Tony because mama Rhodes’s presence was enough to stop Tony from leaving AMA, he had gone back to the compound, tried to put the pieces of everything that happened together, had a long and emotionally exhausting conversation with Vision about his accident and asked for the android's help to get rid of everything the other Avengers had left behind. When Tony had been discharged, James had already put his metaphorical armor around his mind and heart, the one that would make him strong enough for Tony at that moment. He had let Tony pamper him, ask for forgiveness millions of time, even when it wasn't necessary, because his friend needed that. He had approved the idea of an exoskeleton, even with the paralysis being temporary, because Tony needed to keep his mind busy, and had talked to Madeline about what had happened in the Civil War after another sleepless night because of Tony's nightmares. It had taken a while, but they had started to heal, until a certain package arrived in the compound.

The letter and the phone had been the last straw, it had been what made James decide that enough was enough. If he wanted Tony to get really better it was time to sever all the ties with that sickness that was eating his brother, namely the Avengers who had fought alongside Captain America or chosen his side in the middle of the battle.

So that was why Pepper, Happy and he had decided to keep the other Avengers as far away from Tony as possible. They weren't stupid, they knew that SHIELD wasn't really defunct and that Fury and Coulson were still alive and kicking and trying to bring the Avengers back. The team was still a necessary evil and would be just a matter of time until they left sunny and beautiful Wakanda and came back to the US, where most people thought that they were just misguided heroes, that Tony was, once again, the bad guy, while the rest of the world didn't agree with the Americans. So the letter, in which Rogers didn't apologize for anything he had done and only proved James' theories right, that the other man had problems seeing the bigger picture and listening to people who didn’t agree with him, was what made James give FRIDAY the order to block any kind of contact and put Pepper and Happy on high alert. Tony didn't need that kind of bullshit. He was doing good, he was in therapy, he was trying to build a family with the Keeners, he was finally healing and accepting that this was more Rogers’ fault than his. So when the call for help came, James was ready.

War Machine was ready to help the Avengers, not Iron Man.

The Avengers’ disappointment was clear on their face. After two years trying, and failing, to contact Tony they had been naively hoping that the genius would be the one to answer the call. James didn't understand why they thought that. Tony hadn’t said in so many words, but the fact that he wasn't trying to mend any bridges should have been enough to clue them into what he thought of giving the team another chance.

“That's new. We didn't know that you were cleared for duty.” Clint seemed the most surprised by James appearance. But the kind of surprise the archer was showing on his face was the kind that said that he didn't expect Rhodes to have shown at all. James understood Clint's doubts, because James was Tony's brother and had stayed at the genius' side in the War and was pissed as hell with the Avengers. So, for that, it would be normal for him to never show up. But James was also a military man, he knew about duty and responsibility to others better than anyone and when the UN authorized War Machine to aid the Avengers, he went.

Rogers and co. hadn’t signed the Accords yet, but this was more because after two years of stubbornness they had finally relented and decided to give the document a chance but, as expected, half of them didn't understand the legal jargons while others, mainly Rogers, of course, weren't up to date with current politics.

“Why? I did all the requested therapy, I passed all my tests, so why shouldn't I be cleared for duty?” It wasn't what Barton questioned, but James couldn't, and didn't want to, avoid the jab. Rogers’ flinch was a balm for James’ soul. Another thing to add to Rogers' long list of things he should feel guilty about. He already had Barnes’ supposed death, Tony's almost death, in that list, and now James' injury. And James would poke that wound until he was satisfied that Rogers had suffered enough with his mistakes to never repeat them. But that was for another time. Now he had a job to do.

The villain of the week wasn't exactly a villain, just a scared inhuman kid who came to her powers suddenly and lost control of them, creating some big and ugly monsters that were destroying downtown New York because they didn't have any motor coordination. Luckily they died easily and turned into dust when killed.

The whole operation took an hour and most of the time James just flew around, corralling the monsters to the perimeter made by SHIELD agents. When everything was finished, James landed again in time to hear Rogers ask Coulson:

“What will happen to the kid?”

“She's in police's custody, but a Ho Yisen Academy's representative is already at the police station to talk to her and her parents.” James smiled under the armor's helmet. The Academy was Tony's pride and joy, a place founded by the billionaire so they could teach these inhuman kids to do good with their power and monitor and help them in case they stray too far from the right path. They didn't want another Wanda and Pietro on their hands and the UN couldn’t be more happier with the academy, happy to have the burden of dealing with these inhuman kids being taken from their shoulders.

Rogers' face looked like the face of someone constipated after he heard Coulson's answer.

“Is there something wrong, Mr. Rogers?” Coulson said sharply and Steve flinched for the second time that day. To lose Coulson's respect had been a huge blow to the former Captain's ego and he was sure that to gain it again it would take a lot of time and incredible feats for him to succeed.

“No, everything is perfect.” Rogers tried to give Coulson a reassuring smile but it still seemed like he was constipated. James snorted. After two years and finally a huge wake up call from the world (because the press tour planned by Coulson wasn't only to gain the people's trust for the Avengers, it was also for the team to see the consequences of their actions in the eyes of those who still feared them) every time Rogers heard anything that involved Tony Stark he would make that lost puppy face, like that would solve anything and make him get any access to the billionaire.

“Colonel Rhodes?” Coulson addressed James who lifted his faceplate to talk directly with the man.

“Everything is contained and ready to go. If SHIELD doesn't need my help anymore, I have to prepare a report for the UN.”

“Of course. Thanks again for your help, Colonel.” Coulson said and James nodded to the man before he left, and James himself was about to leave when Rogers called him.

“Yes, Rogers?” James asked before Rogers could say anything else, in a tone that indicated that it would be better for Rogers to think about what he was going to say if he didn't want to receive a repulsor's blast to the face.

“I just... I'm...” Rogers babbled and his tongue-tied attitude was so human, so normal, that James again asked himself why he hadn’t seen that before. Rogers, compared to him, was just a kid forced to grow up really fast. James was lucky, his mother had let him enjoy his childhood and adolescence as long as possible, Tony and Rogers hadn’t had that kind of protection. Tony because he had been in the media's eyes since birth and Howard hadn’t been the coddling type. Maria had tried to protect her son but all her love wasn't enough to stop Howard's bad influence and continuous neglect of his own kid. In Rogers' case, his weak health, the Depression and being raised by a single parent had made him grow up faster than expected. It was astonishing how alike both men were, Tony and Rogers, so why didn't they get along?

“I'm really glad that you are better.” Rogers finally found his voice and James wanted to say something vicious, something that would reopen those wounds and make Rogers bleed right there in the middle of the street, but when he saw the other man's face, really saw how tired he looked, how pathetic he looked, all the fight left James' body. The rage had burned a year ago and all that James was capable of feeling towards Rogers now was pity.

James sighed.

“Rogers, please stop trying.” James raised his hand, stopping Steve from saying anything. “I know that the concept of 'leave the past behind' is new for you, but try. I also know that the concept of 'not everything can be fixed' is beyond your grasp. But once again, try.”

“I know all this.” Because better late than never, right? Steve's therapist said that he should have started the treatment as soon as he had been defrosted. If that had happened, a lot of things would have gone differently, perhaps the Civil War would never have happened, but now it was too late and Steve had to live with this consuming guilt, but it didn't mean that he had to give up on reaching Tony, not before trying everything that was possible.

“I don't think you do. You didn't let go of the past and this ended the Avengers. What you did for Barnes was admirable, but stupid. Was he wrongfully accused? Yes. But at that time nobody knew that. Tony, on the other hand, tried to give Barnes the benefit of the doubt, and if you had stopped and listened you would have known that the shoot on sight order was only if Barnes posed a threat. Which is what happened in the end, with your help. The Accords that you were so against were bound to happen sooner or later because this is not a one-man world or a one-man fight. World War Two wasn't won alone, so what made you think that you could win this all by yourself?”

“I know all this too.”

“If you do, then why do you keep insisting on making amends?”

“Because I know all this, but I'm not ready to give up, is not who I am. All everybody is saying to me is for me to listen and I am. I really am. And what I seek is not Tony's forgiveness, but at least I should have a chance to explain myself. Truly explain.”

“You're right,” James said after a minute of silence, pondering over Rogers’ words. “You really deserve a chance to explain yourself.” He closed the faceplate and activated the propulsors, hovering a few feet above the ground, in the pose of someone who was ready to take off. “The problem is that now, Tony is the one who doesn't want to compromise.” And James left, hoping that his parting words were enough to make Rogers see that it was too late to fix anything.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update, but I'm in the middle of a Christmas project, I'm building a dollhouse for my nieces and it's being hell. Also, James Rhodes' POV was the hardest to write until now. Thank you all for your patience.


	11. Tony Stark

**SHARON CARTER**

 

Despite what people might think, it wasn’t the therapy that helped close Tony’s wounds from the Civil War, but the family he thought he didn’t have that proved him wrong.

The healing started small, with Sharon and her big doe eyes full of tears because of the guilt.

“I’m so sorry, Tony.” She said tearfully. “So sorry.”

Tony, still in a hospital bed, tried to offer some comfort to the woman but his body was a big bruise that hurt every time he tried to move and his dry throat was making it impossible for him to talk.

“I thought Rogers had told you about the other Soldiers. He was the man with a plan, at least in the stories, but the truth is that he’s an idiot. He took aunt Peggy’s words literally, he didn’t stop to think that those were the words of a woman who lived in a time where her skills as an agent were overlooked because she was a woman. He didn’t try to negotiate, he didn’t stop to listen, he just cared about his needs and his needs were to protect Barnes, even at the cost of other people’s life. When did one man become more important than the others? And I’m so sorry for this.” Sharon took Tony’s hand in hers and he noticed that she was trembling. “I promise that I will hunt him, that I will make him pay for what he did!”

“No.” Tony said but his voice was almost inaudible because of his throat.

“He hurt you, Tony! He used Howard’s shield to bring you down and left you to die in Siberia! The shield that I recovered for him! I will never forgive him for this, or myself.”

“No!” Tony repeated and this time his voice came out louder than before. He didn’t want to fight anymore or have his loved ones fight his battles just because he was tired. And Sharon shouldn’t shed unnecessary blood in his name like he was some god who was worth the sacrifice.

Sharon sighed, reading in Tony’s eyes his emotions and thoughts.

“I’m sorry.” She said while squeezing Tony’s hand in a comforting gesture. “I think that I’m beyond mad, I’m severely disappointed. Aunt Peggy painted us a guy that in the end didn’t exist.”

“Aunt Peggy was in love.” That or she knew a Rogers that both Tony and Sharon didn’t. “But don’t let go of your heroes just because they failed you. Remember, they’re human too.” Like Tony, Sharon also had a hero-worship on Rogers all because of aunt Peggy’s stories, and Tony was certain that Rogers was the girl’s first crush.

“But not stupid. Besides, I’m not letting go of my heroes.” She squeezed his hand again as to prove a point. “You were my first hero, Tony. And you’ll always be my hero.” Tony didn’t cry, but he could swear that he felt something warm, something mending inside him after Sharon’s words.

Some time later he realized that it was a piece of his heart.

 

**PEPPER POTTS**

 

Pepper was the second one to put the other stitch in his wound.

“I’m gonna kill him!” She hissed and Tony saw an orange glow come from under her skin. Pepper must have noticed too because she took deep and calming breaths and carried on. “Not kill, actually, because it would be a nightmare to hide the evidence, but I can maim him a little.” Tony laughed, forgetting that he was still sore from his injuries so his laugh, in the end, became a painful groan. “Tony.” Pepper’s eyes softened when she saw him trying to catch his breath.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you?”

“Pepper.” Tony warned her. He was aware that she still cared for him but he wasn’t ready to accept this care in a platonic way, not when he still loved her in a non-platonic way. And what hurt the most was to see that love wasn’t their problem, but compromise. Tony was too invested in being Iron Man and Pepper too scared of losing him in a battle to be the supportive girlfriend.

“Fine.” Pepper sighed. Tony was a hard man to read and Pepper was proud of being part of a selected group that could read Tony with one look. And what she saw was that he wasn’t ready to go back to what they were when she was only his PA and he was her misbehaving boss, but she had hope that time would put everything back in its rightful place. “So what are your plans now?” Because Tony always had a plan, especially after being brought down in such a painful way by those supposed to have his back.

“Ruin Ross and bring the Avengers back, for a start.”

“Tony.” Now it was Pepper’s turn to warn him. To squish Ross like the annoying insect that he was would bring a tremendous pleasure to Pepper, but help the traitors? That was a no. “Why bring them back? They’re criminals, their place is in jail and the world is better off without them. They only cause trouble to it instead of saving it.”

“I don’t think they realized the extension of their actions. In their mind, they were doing something good. It was just another mission. They were trying to help people.” Pepper took another calming breath because she could feel the Extremis rumbling again under her skin. Tony was able to stabilize the virus, but he didn’t get rid of it, not entirely, and thinking about those backstabbing Avengers, even hearing their names, was making rage boil inside her in a way she had never felt before.

Pepper had witnessed all the betrayal that Tony had faced through the years. From gold-digger girlfriends, two-faced friends, to Obadiah, who was the cherry on the top of the cake. She had been by his side and helped to pick up the pieces every time Tony had been crushed and she always thought that no one could surpass what Obadiah had done. Pepper had never trusted Stane, so it wasn’t really a surprise for her when he proved to be a manipulative son of a bitch. But the Avengers? The Avengers were the worst, they had fooled even her. The so-called heroes pretended to be Tony’s friends, they ate Tony’s food, lived in his house, used his weapons, his technology, and worst of all, they alienated Tony and criticized him like they had any rights to do it. They never hesitated to point all Tony’s flaws like they were perfect human beings only for, in the end, to be proved that they were the broken ones, not Tony. They treated Tony like he was nothing, like he wasn’t so important because it was easy for them to point other people’s mistakes instead of their own.

“I think they do. They are not children to believe that when you run away from the police it is not because they are right and the police are wrong. Actually, not even children believe in that. They withheld information, they broke the law, Barton broke into a private property, causing thousands of dollars of damage along with Maximoff, who put Vision, her friend, through the floor just because you sent her to her room. To her room! Rogers refused to listen to anyone but decided to believe on the words of a man who for seventy years didn’t even know who he was. Barnes didn’t even remember his name but remembered the other Soldiers and Rogers believed in him. Romanoff’s betrayal wasn’t even a surprise. She lives and breathes deception and King T’Challa is harboring fugitives because of guilt. This is not only a stupid decision for a recently crowned king but late king T’Chaka must be rolling in his grave while being totally disappointed with his son.”

Pepper finished her tirade and saw Tony looking at her with surprise written on his bruised face.

“How do you know this?”

“Know what?”

“All of this. How did you get these pieces of information?”

“Here and there. You don’t work years for Tony Stark and become the CEO of the biggest company in the world without learning how to play Blackjack while counting all of your cards.”

“You scare me sometimes, Pep. You really do.” Pepper laughed.

“If you say so. Now let me be painfully honest here.” Tony gulped. He knew that look on Pepper’s face, it was the same one she had when she broke up with him. She would say things that would hurt, that he would try to deny but, in the end, she would be right and he would accept this, liking or not. “You’ll deal with Ross and I’ll deal with the Avengers.”

“Pepper…” She would eviscerate the Avengers, Tony knew that. Pepper was a goddess, beautiful, smart, kind and loyal, but she could be vengeful when she wanted.

“You are emotionally compromised. You know that what Rogers and the others did was wrong, but you will forgive them, take the blame for them, again, because that’s what you do, is who you are. You take other’s burden as yours even if it crushes you. Not anymore. I won’t let anyone hurt you anymore. I’m not going to throw them in jail, even if they deserve it, but the easy life is over. Stark Industries and Tony Stark himself won’t condone with criminals, even pardoned ones. Are we clear?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re going to therapy.”

“Pep…” Tony whined. He hated therapy, he had tried once after his parents’ death and it was a disaster. It hadn’t solve anything because if it had, he wouldn’t have reacted so badly to that video.

Actually, let’s be real, the problem wasn’t the murder but the lying. The disappointment, the fact that he finally saw Rogers’ dark side and it almost killed him.

“This is not open for negotiation. Therapy for you, even if I have to drag you there by the hair.” And she would, Tony was certain of that.

“Yes, miss.” He finally agreed.

 

**MADELINE RHODES**

 

Mama Rhodes help was more subtle because she didn’t have to say anything to help with the healing, she just hugged Tony, like that time on Maria’s funeral, offering in her silence, comfort, warm and love.

 

**FRIDAY**

 

FRIDAY was kind of a surprise. The AI was young, she didn’t have the same emotional depth and knowledge that JARVIS had, not yet, but it seemed she was getting there.

“Boss?” She called, pulling Tony out of his working zone. Rhodey’s leg braces were almost perfect, but they still had space for improvements.

“Yes?”

“I…” She hesitated. FRIDAY never hesitated, not according to her program. Despite the Irish accent, Tony had built her based on Pepper’s personality, that was why he told her that he envisioned the AI as a bossy redhead. “There’ve been some calls to the burn phone since the Avengers’ return to the USA.” Tony waited for the panic to consume him, for the fear brought forward by the idea that Rogers was trying to contact him start to eat him slowly, but nothing happened. The man was probably calling to complain about Pepper being on a warpath against Tony’s former teammates, but besides a slight discomfort, he didn’t feel anything else. That was a progress. Therapy, apparently, was working.

“And?”

“As per orders of Colonel Rhodes, I’m filtering all the calls and judging which one can be connected, directed to the voicemail for further analysis or deleted.”

“And what’s the verdict?”

“That Rogers is crazy if he thinks that I will let him get in contact with you while he harbors such a lack of empathy for other people's problems and feelings.” She hesitated again. “Did I act wrong?”

Did she act wrong? Tony wasn’t sure, but her voice was so small, so uncertain and so full of loyalty and love that he couldn’t say that what she did was wrong because protecting Tony was her primary directive. She was only doing her job after all.

“No, baby girl, you didn't.” She was learning, she was becoming his new JARVIS, but with her own sass, she was her father’s daughter.

“I hope I didn’t make you mad.” Tony smiled at her words. She sounded like a child that tried to do the right thing but wasn’t so sure that she had succeeded and now was waiting for punishment.

“No baby girl, you made me proud.” FRIDAY didn’t have an answer to Tony’s praise, but he could picture a redhead with freckles smiling beautifully at him.

 

**HARLEY AND STEPHANIE KEENER**

 

Harley and Stephanie were a surprise.

Tony didn’t plan to be a parent. Maria did her job the best as she could, but every good thing she accomplished raising Tony, Howard destroyed with his lack of skills in being a father. And Tony was too much his father’s son to willing let a child suffer what he had suffered from Howard. But when he heard of Suzanne’s death he was surprised by the feeling that took over, the one that he couldn’t put a name on but was saying to him that he couldn’t leave those kids on their own in this big bad world.

Getting the Keener’s guardianship wasn’t easy, but he had Pepper, he had his therapist saying that this was good for him, that he would do good, that he was ready. He had Rhodey and mama Rhodes, and Happy, Sharon and even Vision and FRIDAY, who was dying to be a big sister, and with a lot of fight and tears he became the father of a teenage boy and an adorable little girl.

Well, at least on the outside she was adorable.

Tony bonded with Harley through science and almost death experiences. They spoke the same language, both were geniuses, they understood each other without even saying a complete sentence. But Stephanie? What did Tony have in common with a girl who not so long ago was a fan of Dora The Explorer? It seemed that everything.

Stephanie was Tony.

She wasn’t a genius, but she was smart, fierce, stubborn, sassy and loyal. And she kicked Captain America on his shin. Rogers must still be asking himself what he did wrong to piss off such an adorable girl. He had no idea.

“Don’t praise her!” Tony reprimanded Pepper when she praised Stephanie after Harley told them the tale of their encounter with team Captain America.

“Why not? She only did what we all have been dying to do for years. But it wouldn’t be exactly on the shins that I would have kicked Rogers.” Rhodey nodded, agreeing with Pepper’s words.

“Even then, it wasn’t right.” Rhodey laughed at Tony.

“You’re only saying this because you have to be a parent, you have to set an example, but I don’t have this problem. You and me kiddo, this Saturday. Movies and ice cream to celebrate.” Stephanie smiled at Rhodey.

“Rhodey!”

“Chill out, Tones. It wasn’t like she really hurt Rogers. Besides, she didn’t say any lie to the man and maybe this will help him get his head out of the sand and see that the world doesn’t turn as he likes and that he’s not America’s sweetheart anymore.” Rhodey was right and even if he had to reprimand Stephanie, deep down he was proud of his girl. And he hoped that Suzanne was proud of him for raising them like Maria had taught him to do: with love and understanding.

 

**HAPPY HOGAN**

 

Happy Hogan came into Tony’s life before Pepper and after Rhodey. The man was the only one in a bunch of bodyguards with whom Tony got along. Happy wasn’t always serious, he didn’t take Tony’s bullshit lightly and he did his job well without crowding Tony. The genius had never liked a 24/7 shadow.

Besides, Happy made him smile.

“So, did you take the trash out?” Tony asked as soon as Happy returned to the Tower. The bodyguard was right when he had said that Tony was aware of what his friends were doing. He knew that Pepper, Sharon, Rhodey and Happy had assigned to themselves the mission of being Tony’s guardian angels and fight his fight from now on while he took his time to heal, and so far they were doing a marvelous job.

Tony knew that Clint was stalking him, trying for any form of contact with the billionaire and that was why he had started to take the armor as a way of transportation to the old Stark Mansion in upstate New York. Barton was stubborn, but Tony had hoped that the archer had learned his lesson after all the stupid things he had done in the war, like abandoning his family for example, and as far as Tony knew the other man still was on probation in Laura’s book, so he wouldn’t try to force his presence on Tony, not if he wanted another problem with the law or Laura herself.

“Yes.” Happy didn’t try to explain himself or give Tony any excuse about what was happening and Tony was grateful for that. He didn’t need anyone else alienating him, the Avengers were enough.

 

**BRUCE BANNER**

 

Bruce was another surprise because Tony had never expected to see the other scientist again or for him to support Tony and the Accords.

“I didn’t like the idea of Ross being behind the Accords, but you dealt with that problem and the document itself is valid. I’m a scientist, I understand the necessity of rules, and I’m sorry.” Tony didn’t ask what Bruce was apologizing for, neither did he say that the other man shouldn't have to. Therapy and strong-headed friends were a great help for him to see things in another perspective, one that wasn’t blinded by guilt and shame.

So Bruce should feel sorry, especially after he had left Tony to deal with the aftermath of Sokovia and Ultron alone, and Tony would listen to his apologies and think if he would forgive Banner or not. As his therapist said, he wasn’t obligated to forgive anyone if he wasn’t ready. He had to put himself first, feel comfortable with himself. Forgive someone for their wrong doings was supposed to make Tony feel better, not the other person.

“I talked to Pepper and she’s gonna help me draw a contract for the Hulk. And just for you to know, it wasn’t easy to reach you. Pepper is an unmovable wall.” Tony smiled.

“I know.” Pepper was a goddess who made Tony thank the heaven every day for having her in his life.

“So… What now?” Bruce had done his part, he asked for forgiveness and now the ball was in Tony’s court. If the other genius wanted to forgive him and get their friendship back, it would be awesome. If he only wanted to forgive Bruce but never see his face again, it would hurt, but Bruce was a reasonable man and would understand, but if he didn’t want to forgive Bruce, he was in his right because Bruce had messed up too and Tony wasn’t obligated to do anything to please him, not after all those horrible things the Avengers had done to the billionaire, Bruce included.

“Now I need your brain in a project. I put Rhodey on his feet, now I want to make him run.” Bruce smiled. It wasn’t forgiveness, he could see that on Tony’s face, but it was a start.

 

**JAMES RHODES**

 

Rhodey wasn’t even a surprise because he was Tony’s brother from another mother, their souls were connected, they shared a profound bond that Tony had never thought he would have with anyone, and that was why even being pissed at Rogers he kind of understood the other men, but it didn’t mean that he could forgive him. Rhodey meant to Tony what Barnes meant for Rogers, but Tony knew that he would have done everything differently if he had been in Rogers’ place, starting with not being such a damn hypocrite. If Rogers had told Tony before all this mess with Zemo about his parents’ death, he wouldn’t have reacted so badly. And what hurt most wasn’t the lie, but all those times when Rogers had judged Tony’s actions, admonished him, while Rogers himself lied to the face of his so-called friends without any remorse. Literally lied to their face because when Tony had asked if Rogers knew about Howard and Maria’s death by the Winter Soldier’s hands, the man had the courage to say no to him, had the courage to say that he wasn’t sure if was really Barnes’ fault.

Rogers liked to pretend to be a naïve boy from Brooklyn, but he couldn’t be such an idiot as to expect Tony to fall for that act.

The other Soldiers had only come alive thanks to Howard’s serum and after the Winter Soldier, the only one that existed at the time, killed the man for the formula. Even a child would be able to see the logic in that and Rogers wanted Tony to swallow that stupid excuse like it was the unquestionable true. Sometimes Tony asked himself if the Avengers thought that the ’genius’ part that he used in his introductions was just something that Tony made up to look cool and forget that Howard had tested him, that he had thousands of technological accomplishment under his name from the time he was four years old to prove that his IQ was off the charts.

But back on the track, Tony wouldn’t have lost his head so easily if he had been in Rogers’ place. Like Rhodey didn’t lose his head when Tony had disappeared in Afghanistan. Rhodey hadn’t given up on searching for Tony, but he did that using all the legal ways and all the allies he could find. Unlike Rogers, Rhodey didn’t punch his way through the authorities to get what he wanted.

“So? How did it go?” Tony asked Rhodey when the Colonel came back from the mission with the Avengers.

“You want to know about the kid who came into her powers and freaked out or about the Avengers?” Tony just looked at Rhodey without saying anything because his eyes were doing this job for him. Tony already knew what was going to happen to the girl, what he wanted to know was about the Avengers.

Rhodey sighed. They were trying to protect Tony, free him from this abusive relationship he had with the Avengers, but this kind of psychological trauma was hard to undo. Even after two years, every time the genius heard his former teammates’ name, he would react like he was electroshocked and it would take a while for him to remember that the Avengers weren’t his problem anymore. That he wasn’t supposed to care.

“The usual. Rogers tried to punch his way out of a situation, but this time I was the tree planted firmly on the ground saying that I wasn’t going to move.”

“Are you quoting aunt Peggy?” Tony said with a smile playing on his lips. Aunt Peggy had inspired a generation of young minds to achieve greatness, to try to do better, to do good, to prove to everyone that they could be more than what society expected them to be. Tony and Rhodey were two of those minds.

“She was an inspiration. Did I tell you that she was the reason for me to enlist in the Air Force?” Tony rolled his eyes. Rhodey had always been a fan of war heroes, but nothing made him more starstruck than Captain America and Margareth Carter. The day he had met Peggy, through Tony obviously, had been the most awesome day of the other man’s life. And Tony had the pictures to prove and use as blackmail.

“You guys are spoiling me.” Tony joked but Rhodey’s face wasn’t the face of someone who found the joke amusing.

“I rather spoil you than alienate you.”

“Rhodey…”

“You are not made of glass, Tony, I know this, but you’re not unbreakable either. The Avengers live under the illusion that you should follow their rules and ideals blindly and when you don’t, you are the egotistical one. They conveniently forget that you own a multi-billion dollar company, that what you do reflects on your company. That you have a responsibility to the people working for you, not to them. They forget that if you go down, thousands of people will go down with you, that there will be a crash in the economy, that it would be a disaster on a global scale because that’s how far Stark Industries influences the world. They say that you don’t understand a thing about responsibility to others, but they are the ones who didn’t understand. And if we have to stop them from reaching you until they truly realize their mistakes, we’re gonna keep doing that. I don’t care if it is Captain America or God himself, you deserve… no, you need to have someone in your corner, someone who’s gonna put you first and we will be this someone.”

“Ah Platypus, I didn’t know you care.” And enough to make Tony feel warm inside and tears come to his eyes.

“Of course I care, dumbass. You’re my little brother from another mother.”

“Yes, I am.” Tony agreed, letting Rhodey pull him into a hug.

 

**TONY STARK**

 

So it wasn’t therapy or time that healed Tony, it was the people surrounding him, his true family, those who put his heart back together piece by piece, with their name on it, and built a wall around him to not let their hard work fixing Tony Stark be undone ever again. And it was their love that gave him the strength to face his former teammates when Iron Man landed in front of them.

“Tony…” Rogers breathed out the name like it was a prayer and he looked so much younger than he really was and so lost that Tony almost pitied him, almost. Clint took a step in Tony’s direction, but War Machine blocked the archer’s path and this was enough warning for Hawkeye to retreat. Natasha seemed unaffected by everything, but Tony knew that another redhead had put the spy in her place and with enough threats that the Russian would think three times before even trying to betray Tony again. Sam looked relieved at seeing Rhodey on his feet again and Tony couldn’t hold any grudges against him. Sam and Tony had never been close, so it wasn’t a surprise when the man followed Rogers, believing that what he was doing was right, and refused to listen to Tony because he didn’t know the genius well enough to really trust him with anything.

But back to Rogers, he seemed like a puppy that was stopping himself from jumping on his owner to beg for affection and forgiveness for the couch that he destroyed.

But it wouldn’t be so easy. Not now, not ever again.

Tony’s family had also taught him another thing: forgiveness must be earned and even then is the person who was wronged that should decide if they wanted to forgive or not, without any obligation bounded to the act.

Tony lifted the armor’s faceplate and took a deep breath before he started his speech because Rogers’ expression was clear: he believed that because Tony had come to aid them that everything would be the same again. Well, time to burst somebody’s bubble.

“Let’s make things clear here before we start: we are facing the Apocalypse, so obviously I came to help. I don’t expect you to have my back in battle, but rest assured that I will have yours. And after everything is over, because I firmly believe that we are gonna win, I’ll follow my way and you will follow yours and I will forget that I had the displeasure of meeting you.”

“Tony…” Rogers said using the tone of voice that Tony had always feared to hear in the past because it was Captain America’s ’I’m disappointed with you’ voice. A voice that he now hated. He wasn’t a child, he was older than Rogers by twenty years, he had lived almost fifty years on this Earth while Rogers hadn’t even thirty on his back so no, he wasn’t going to be admonished by a man who, in theory, was the real child compared to Tony. And if hardship in life was a synonym of maturity then Tony was older than his real age because it had  never been easy to be a Stark.

“Rogers, it seems that all my friends sent you a message in my name, a message that you didn’t register because you firmly believe that you still have a chance of redemption. Then let me burst your bubble right now: you don’t. You fucked up. You lied, you were a hypocrite, you betrayed me and you never really were my friend. If I ever liked you, that feeling died when I asked you if you knew that the Winter Soldier was the one who killed my parents and you still lied to my face. And if I don’t like you, I don’t have to forgive you. None of you. I don’t have to feel uncomfortable just to make you feel better with yourself. I’m tired of you treating me like I’m an idiot, like I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m older than you all and I know that I don’t always do the right thing but I don’t always fuck up for you to use this as an excuse to put me aside and disregard my opinion. The genius thing is real. I was tested, I have several degrees and masters and PhD under my name, so stop thinking that I’m stupid, especially when my biggest mistake wasn’t even my fault to begin with, it was because someone had some serious misconceptions about me.” He looked accusingly at Wanda, who lowered her eyes in shame. “But misconceptions everybody has, especially against people in positions similar to mine, but even then I don’t see people seeking revenge against other weapon manufacturers. I know my weapons were the best, but I wasn’t the only one in the market. So what made me so special to have every shit happening in the world be put on my account?” Wanda still wasn’t looking to Tony and she seemed to have some tears in her eyes.

A long time ago Tony would had felt bad for making the girl cry, but now he was disgusted. Wanda had had a shit life, but she wasn’t a special snowflake. Others had lives worse than her and didn’t affiliate themselves with a terrorist group to try to destroy a man who didn't do anything illegal or wrong.

Tony was a weapon manufacturer so the nickname Merchant of Death had a strong weight on it, but that was because he was very good at what he did, but the curious thing about this was that nobody seems to remember that his weapons were for military use only, to protect USA’s soldiers on the field, to help to protect this country and its people. He didn’t make them for HYDRA or something like that. So now that Tony thought about it, Merchant of Death was a stupid and unjust nickname. Tony was only doing his job. But if he was too good, he got that dark title, if he was sloppy he was massacred by the mass because he was supposed to help. It was a late lesson, but one he had finally learned: you’ll never be able to please everybody, so don’t even try, because you’re only wasting your time and energy.

Tony had tried to please the Avengers, to prove to Rogers that he was worth it, to Howard that he could be better, only to have the vibranium shield his father made being hit repeatedly on his chest by the man who was supposed to be the paradigm of goodness and he did that to protect the man who worth ten of him.

“And no, this speech is not my ego talking. It’s me. It’s me saying that from now on I am putting myself first and this includes not forgiving assholes who think that the world should turn at their command. And you all call me egocentric.”

“I’m sorry Tony.” Steve said, looking at the floor because, like Wanda, he was too ashamed to keep eye contact.

“Sorry pal, but I’m not interested in your explanations or apologies. So let’s put this show on the road because I have a planet to save and a family to keep safe and no, is not the one that was supposed to be mine more than yours.” Tony said, closing the faceplate at the same time Steve raised his head with a miserable expression on his face because Tony’s last jab hurt. The family that the Avengers were supposed to be and apparently belonged to Tony more than Steve, but ran away with Steve instead of supporting Tony. The family that excluded Tony and now that they were trying to make amends, it was too late.

Tony had disinherited them and decided that they weren’t worth his time. Not now, not ever. And that hurt more than losing Bucky and Peggy and his life in the forties. It was like he was falling in the freezing ocean again, but this time there wouldn’t be any expedition financed by Stark Industries to pull him out. This time there wouldn’t be any Stark to save him.

Steve won’t have Tony to save him, to save the Avengers.

Ever again.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! I finished, I can't believe that I finished. This was the hardest chapter to write and this is why it took so long. I want to thank you all for the comments, the kudos and bookmarks. Thanks for the support, because I suck in English. Thanks for everything.


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